


Reliving Classic

by DiscordedEdd



Category: Hilda (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Gen, Kinda a super hero story, Older Doppelganger, Takes place in early 2000s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25093918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiscordedEdd/pseuds/DiscordedEdd
Summary: On the day Hilda turned 15, she thought she would have a grand day of fun and adventure. However, Hilda's world turned upside down due to an world changing event called "The Anomaly" and soon she would have to readjust to her new world along with the people around her.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Part 1, Chapter 1: Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thanks for showing interest in reading this story, it definitely means a lot, but I want to give you reader a heads up. This story will soon get revamped and while this revamped version will be almost the same story as this one, there is some stuff that will get changed when that eventually arrives, including an entirely new chapter for the story. If you're still planning to read the story then I hope you enjoy it!

Reliving (Classic)

Created by DiscordedEdd

Written: Trevor Owens, Bidoof64, DiscordedEdd, leaf_sketches, Volume Control

Edited by: Miss_lovelin

Part 1: Change.

Chapter 1: Party.

Yellow. It was all yellow, but blurry. Then black. After several seconds, yellow returned and the blurriness was now gone. All shown was a ceiling and a window alluring to bright yellow rays from the outside covering everything in its warm welcome.

The yellow rays also warmed up the heavy cloth laying upon a body sleeping soundly...or was. The person sleeping in the bed slowly lifted their back to see the outside with their vision piercing the yellow rays to witness a colorful city.

A city of diverse buildings, cars, doors, chimneys, mailboxes, you name it. People walked on the streets either alone, with the love of their lives, or an animal, either being a companion or a service animal. All among each other to find their respective places, like clockwork.  
The person looked back to see an equally as colorful room. Not with the walls, but with the materials. Pencils and sketchbooks, a yellow desk with a small clocktower on it, colorful plushies, a closet of differing clothes, bean bag chairs, a tall mirror, and most importantly, a white small animal with the shape of a fox and the antlers of a deer sleeping with the person on the bed.

The person removed the covers on the bed, got up, and walked towards the mirror to see a teenage girl with blue hair and pajamas. Blue and green pajamas. The girl’s hair went all the way down to her legs and slightly curled in the edges.

The girl noticed that her furry companion began to slowly wake up by seeing a reflection of the animal in the mirror. 

"Sleep well?"

The animal rose up after hearing his owner’s question and turned his head sideways in confusion. 

“I said, 'Did you sleep well, Twig?’"

Twig then nodded as a way of saying “yes” to his owner. 

"And you know what day it is?" The girl asked again, with Twig not replying. “Today, I turn 15!"

Immediately, Twig jumped off of the bed and ran up to jump in his owner’s arms. Once the animal was in his owner’s arms, he began licking his close friend’s face to celebrate the birthday.

"Ok, Twig. Alright, alright, alright! Thank you. Enough," the girl laughed, while holding Twig, and the animal stopped to lay in the owner’s arms like if she was holding a baby. "Come on, let’s see what Mum is up to," the girl said as she placed Twig on the ground.

The girl opened the door to her room that led to a hallway, which revealed the rest of her home's interior. The wall's colours were rather dull; it was a shade of maroon and white. What made the place interesting were the paintings and photos of the girl's family that have been taken and framed all over the years.

She stood there in awe, reminiscing of the times and adventures she had either alone, or with her family. "Time does pass by fast," she murmured.

The girl then walked down the hallway and into the kitchen, expecting that her mum would be preparing something for her there. However, nothing came up and nobody was in the kitchen. Just the usual kitchen with the fridge, stove and oven, and food in the cabinets.

The blue haired girl looked around on the shelves to find what to eat, but she was suddenly hugged from behind out of nowhere. The girl turned around and realized that the person who hugged her was her mother, hiding to turn up a surprise.

"Happy Birthday, Hilda," her mother spoke. 

"You scared me!"

"Wanted to surprise you," her mother spoke again. The two separated from their encounter and the two had a more proper hug, embracing each other with loving care. The mother looked like she was in her mid thirties, wearing similar pajama clothes as her daughter, but compared to the young one, she didn’t have blue hair at all. Her hair color was dark brown.

"I got a surprise for you," Hilda's mother mentioned. Hilda’s face perked up as her mother stood up and began walking towards a closet. 

"What is it?"

"You’ll see," her mother answered as she searched through the closet. She found a wrapped up package. It was red and green with a blue bow on the top of it. The mother of the young girl walked over to her and handed the box to her.

Hilda began unwrapping the box and it revealed to be a white box. A simple white box. The teenager opened the second box and it revealed to be a grey and red sweater with a hoodie and pockets. Hilda immediately took out the sweater to get a good look at it and it looked absolutely astonishing. Fresh and soothing in both its cloth and smell.

As a way of saying thanks, Hilda hugged her mother again with the sweater and box in each hand. "How did you know I’ve always wanted a sweater?"

"You always stare at sweaters when we go down to the local stores so I went down to a clothing parlor and got one custom made just for you," the mother replied.

"You did that?" Hilda asked in amazement. 

"Yep. Had to hide it for a while, but now it is in your arms. You can wear it at school and the party today. Speaking of which, you remember who will be arriving?"

"Yeah. Everyone. Probably about twenty some at the Sparrow Scouts HQ to set up stuff and party," Hilda answered. 

"Alright. You get into uniform with the sweater on and I’ll prepare breakfast for all of us."

"Hilda!" A male voice called out from Hilda’s bedroom to both the daughter and the mother’s surprise. Hilda walked back into her bedroom to see that the clocktower clock opened up to show a small bedroom inside and a tiny figure with the same structure as a human, but without the complexity. More in the shape of an Elf.

“Hi, Alfur," Hilda began. Alfur stretched as he woke up from his slumber to give the same message the mother gave. "So you’re 15 today?"

"Absolutely," Hilda answered. "Well, happy birthday, friend! I notice that sweater Johanna got you. You know, I was there during the making of that sweater."

"Really? You knew too?" Hilda asked as she searched around the closet for her school uniform. "Yep. I was there and I’m sure it’ll look great on you," Alfur said.

"Thanks. I’ll have to get ready for school and such. I assume you’re going to begin writing reports already?" Hilda wondered. 

"You bet. I’ll see you at the party."

After Alfur closed the clocktower clock to write more reports like he usually does, Hilda got herself dressed in the school uniform given to her to wear everyday, and she then looked at the sweater she laid on her bed before preparing to get dressed. So, she decided to compromise and put on the sweater despite it being against policy. Today was her birthday, she didn’t care. The uniform she had to wear was an ugly one. Dark yellow hues mixed in with horribly mixing black hues and sewed patches on the front right. Hilda hated it, but it was there for a reason. Despite her never knowing the reason at all.

The rest of the morning was breakfast and afterward, Johanna and Hilda went down to the sidewalk as the new school bus pulled in to take Hilda to the school she always knew since the age of 11. The buses were established in Trolberg due to the city being so massive along with many families not being able to bring their child to the place of education so in response, a free bus system was set in stone.

Johanna kissed her daughter on the forehead and Hilda entered the bus on the path to Ahlberg. The bus was filled with all the children Hilda learned to know throughout her life in the city. Familiar faces, names, you name it. As Hilda walked down the aisle, she noticed Frida and David sitting together waiting for her to join them, so she took the offer.

"Happy birthday!" Frida stated and gave Hilda a tight hug. David joined in on the hug with the same words from Frida. 

"Thank you!"

David and Frida looked like they walked among the growth of life. Looking older within the same uniforms and acting wiser. Just like Hilda herself. "So, you got a new sweater?" David asked.

"Yep! Mum had someone make it just for me," Hilda excitedly answered. 

"Nice! Also, Frida and I worked together to create a special fruit punch that’ll be at the party tonight."

"Wonderful, looking forward to it!" Hilda remarked, with the two friends smiling. 

"You know, someone at school could talk you down about the sweater," Frida mentioned. 

"I know. I’ll deal with it."

"Alright. I guess you’ll be going to the Sparrow Scouts HQ as soon as school is over?" David asked. "Absolutely, I’d just be bored waiting at home. I’m ready to party," Hilda spoke happily.

The bus traveled throughout Trolberg for all the kids to witness the vibrant colors and scenery around them. Just like when Hilda woke up, it was a series of diverse buildings, cars, you name it. It was all there. All in beautiful bliss to the young eyes.

The drive went on for like an hour, picking up more and more kids until the bus was like a party itself until they all arrived at The Ahlberg Education Center. The kids ran out of the bus and went inside the school along with Hilda, Frida, and David to see an ordinary interior. Yellow lights, lockers, generic classrooms.

Everyone waited in the cafeteria for classes to be ready. People talking together down massive tables going across the entire room, people getting the school’s version of breakfast. Of course, nothing can beat whatever Johanna comes up with at home. Yet, if there’s nothing from home, the school lunch isn’t a bad replacement.

The morning announcements came on, talking about the usual along with birthday celebrations. Hilda’s name was called out among the names of celebration and the three friends smiled together as the announcements came to a close. The bells rang and everyone went to their respected classes. Hundreds of kids running or walking from left, right, or all over the place. Up the stairs, downstairs, anywhere. All to get to class on time. Hilda, David, and Frida ended up in Ms. Hallgrim’s class to start. It was normal history.

The classroom was the typical type of classroom you would see. Yellow lights, yellow desks, yellow everything. Everyone was in the same ugly uniform that Hilda wore. Yet, she was the only one with something different to break up the repetitive nature of colors among the square canvas.

Hallgrim looked older, white hair, yellow clothes, but was wiser. Like how anyone would be at that age. Everyone took their seats and prepared themselves for a day of learning. The class went about as normal. Normal talks about history, lectures of people who either were heroes or villains in the passage of time. During the presentation, the room went from yellow to dark blue. Everything in the room contrasted itself instantly. Hallgrim walked through the room past each row of desks past each kid listening. 

The older woman walked near Hilda’s desk, but to her surprise, Hallgrim slightly tilted her head towards Hilda and said, “I need to talk to you after class. No trouble, don’t worry.”

Class went on normally and when the bells rang along with the yellow hues returning, everyone left the room while Hilda walked up to Hallgrim’s desk for context for the short talk earlier. 

"You needed something? It’s about the sweater, isn’t it?"

"Yeah. I’ve known you for years and I don’t really mind you wearing that at all, but I’m not sure about other teachers here. They’re probably as angry as what I was when I met you. I know it’s your birthday, Hilda, but it’s probably the best idea to not wear the sweater for now."

"I expected that, but hey, thank you for your honesty and sympathy," Hilda embarrassedly said. Surprisingly, Hallgrim got up and walked over to hug Hilda. The two hugged for a bit as a way of giving sympathy. 

"I know you want to celebrate all day, but school policy and all," Hallgrim said, and the two separated. 

"Yeah. Again, thanks. I guess I got too excited and such," Hilda mentioned. 

"It happens. Today is your birthday so don’t blame yourself too much. Now, go to the restroom, take the sweater off, and go to class. Alright?"

"Alright. Thank you," Hilda sadly said and walked towards the door leading to a hallway of running kids. "Hey, Hilda," Hallgrim said, and Hilda stopped to turn around. "Happy birthday."

The teenage girl smiled and walked out of the classroom to see a hallway of hundreds of kids. Hilda walked her way through the hallway and found herself in the girl’s restroom so she could take care of the sweater.

After taking off the sweater and now returning to the ugly yellow nature of everyone else, Hilda held the sweater with her for the rest of the school day. The girl would place the sweater in her lap when sitting down at a desk or in the cafeteria for lunch. Hilda now blended in with everyone else. No longer the unique child of the pack of hundreds. Just a worker among other workers serving a non-existent queen.

Of course, Frida and David gave Hilda the world of comfort she needed among the pack of yellow. The only thing to contrast the color was the sweater Hilda held close to her all day. Nothing else, but the sweater.

The day was nothing special aside from the occasional “happy birthdays” from random kids and older figures in Hilda’s life like Trevor. The classes went on without a hitch, no one harassed Hilda about the sweater, everything turned out well. 

The bus came to pick up the kids to take them home and off they all went. The outside was darker than what was seen in the morning. Yellow was there, yes, but the blues of the night were beginning to creep its way into the world. The ride was just as long as the morning, going from place to place dropping off kids to their families.

Then David’s stop came up. "Well, I’ll see you two at the party in a few. Bye!" Frida and Hilda waved goodbye to David as he walked off the bus and drove away to finish the shift. The bus pulled next to Hilda’s apartment and it was time for her to leave. The bus that was once a party, now is more of an abandoned ghost town aside from a few kids and Frida still being there. "See you then, Hilda," Frida mentioned. 

"Likewise."

Hilda left the bus with the sweater still in her hands. She stood on the sidewalk alone and in a moment’s notice, she then tightly hugged the sweater she had in her hand the entire day. The sweater was still fresh, soft, and full of emotional sentimentality. Even if she only had it for a day, or half a day at least.

The girl walked inside the apartment building, walked up the stairs, and entered her old and loving home. A home with the elf, her mother, and her deerfox. The home was in a similar yellow color pattern like the school due to the lights, but with the red walls and all the other colored objects everywhere that contrasted, it all worked out beautifully. Johanna took notice of her daughter who returned and rose from her area of rest at the couch to greet Hilda. 

"Welcome home!"

Johanna hugged her daughter as Twig ran up to join the loving grace. “Hey, you aren't wearing your sweater. I guess things didn’t work out well at school with it on?"

"Yeah. It’s no big deal," Hilda said. 

"I expected that, but I didn’t want to disappoint you. Anyway, I know you want to go to the Scouts HQ right now, so let’s get ready."

Hilda gave her mother a soft smile as the two separated from the hug. 

"Thanks, Mum. I’ll go get this awful uniform off."

"Go ahead," Johanna mentioned and Hilda ran off to her bedroom with Twig following. Hilda prepared herself for the party by replacing the uniform she wore all day with a normal white shirt and black pants. Of course, she put on the sweater afterward.

Everyone prepared for the party. Hilda, Johanna, Alfur, and even Twig. Well Twig was always ready for anything in any given situation. Alfur ended up on Johanna’s shoulder as the crew left the house and entered Johanna’s car in the garage to go to the party. 

"Everyone ready?" Johanna asked.

"Yep," Hilda responded. "Likewise," Alfur mentioned. Johanna nodded her head and started up the engine. The car pulled out of the garage and the crew began their journey towards the Sparrow Scouts HQ.

The ride was a long ways out, but it would be worth it for everyone. The dark blues were taking over the yellow the more time was spent on the road. The amount of people on the sidewalk weren’t much now. The street lamps were on and yellow, the cars driving by had their headlights on and the amount of cars were much less than the daytime. The city was still colorful among the blue bliss with the yellow lights of the street lamps and the lights inside the homes of the residents. The crew traveled throughout the city and its bliss to Hilda. Absolute wonder though each city block.

The trip led to the crew arriving on a tall hill in an area of the city where there were no big buildings with big street lamps. Just a normal giant lodge with tons of cars parked outside and a few trees standing around. They did find a free parking space among the sea of cars, so they parked on the far left side of the area. 

"We’re here," Johanna said as she turned off the car and took the key out of the ignition.

Before Johanna knew it, Hilda and Twig left the car as soon as it parked. All thanks to Hilda leaving due to impatience, leaving both Johanna and Alfur alone. 

"Figures," Johanna said to herself.

Hilda ran past the sea of cars. Blue, red, black, yellow, white, brown, purple, this parking space had it all. Hilda found her way on the path to the door to enter her own party so she walked up the steps on the porch, walked to the door, and opened it to see an auditorium remade to fit a massive party with more than forty people there. It was filled to the brim with confetti on the floor everywhere, massive tables similar to the school’s cafeteria with unique chairs, a jukebox with a varied selection of music, a massive table filled with unique selections of food and drinks along with a black box. A box filled with unknown secrets to Hilda. 

That’s not all. The area above the stage had a massive sign hanging over saying “Happy Birthday, Hilda!” and Hilda was astounded. The stage also had a giant pair of speakers on each side. Suddenly, Hilda saw both Frida and David running up to greet her. 

"Hey, Hilda!" they both shouted. Hilda waved at the two as they approached her. 

"You like the look?" David asked.

"How can I not? It’s amazing!" Hilda excitedly answered to the two. "Now, we did mention that David and I made fruit punch, so come on. Let’s try it out!"

"Sure!" The three teenagers walked their way through what seemed to be like a one nation army and ended up at the food table. It had all kinds of treats and drinks to serve. Soda, chips, jello, the whole nine yards. Plus, the box of secrets in the middle. The crew discovered what looked like a giant glass container filled with fruit and an unknown red like liquid to it all. The glass container even had a faucet like system on the bottom middle of it just beside the black support railing holding it all up. 

"That’s the fruit punch?"

"Yep. It was a nightmare carrying it over. We basically placed cut up fruit like strawberries, pineapples, kiwis, berries, like pretty much every fruit you can think of. Then we mixed it all with water and coconut water as well. I don’t really remember what else we put in there except for all the fruit," Frida lectured.

"Seemed like a tough feat to pull off," Hilda mentioned. 

"It was. Literally, we spent the entire night with my parents cutting up all the fruit and trying to find a place for this in the fridge to keep it cold. Even if I’m tired right now, it was worth it since it tastes great," David spoke up. 

"You guys didn’t really have to do all of that," Hilda added.

"No, we wanted to. Really. It’s not just for you. It’s for everyone. Come on, let’s try it out," Frida countered and then grabbed a red plastic cup. Frida placed the cup under the faucet near the glass container of fruit and liquid and lifted up the lock on top of the faucet. After several seconds, the cup was filled and Frida handed the drink over to Hilda.

Hilda took a sip of the fruit punch and right away, her mind was blown away. "Wow!" Hilda exclaimed. "Oh yeah. It’s astounding," David praised and then walked over to place his arm over Hilda’s shoulder with Frida following in the boy’s footsteps. "Happy birthday!" Frida and David simultaneously said to the birthday girl.

"Thank you all. Really," Hilda happily mentioned and Twig used his hind legs to stand up along with placing his front paws on Hilda’s left leg. Hilda broke from the group hug and tended to Twig by kneeling and petting him on the head with her free hand.

"Hilda!" The voice caught Hilda off guard for a moment as she pet Twig and the callout came from Johanna, finally catching up to Hilda. "I see you noticed everything, and yes, it was all planned," Johanna mentioned.

Before Johanna could say more, the leader of the Sparrow Scouts walked up to the crew to introduce herself. 

"Hi, Hilda," Raven Leader began and the crew took notice of Raven Leader. The woman was a middle aged figure. A wise, yet aging leader with a Sparrow Scouts uniform on.

"Hi, Raven Leader," Hilda responded and then stood up beside both Frida and David. "By the way, you’re still with us on the field trip to the Huldrawood in two weeks?"

"Yep. Wouldn’t miss it for the world,"Hilda answered. 

"Hilda, the place looks astounding!" Alfur exclaimed while writing as much as he could. 

"It does, Alf."

"Hey, I wonder what’s in that box over there?" Alfur noticed and pointed towards the box in the middle of the table. Everyone looked at the box and then both Raven Leader and Johanna placed a smirky smile on their faces. "That’s for a later time tonight. How about you all enjoy yourselves and when the time is right, we’ll find out," Raven Leader suggested. 

"Yeah, let’s all party and then we’ll find out soon enough," Johanna added. The teens shrugged the suspicion off and partied with everyone.

Hilda’s world turned from a day of waiting to a day of party. Adults and children dancing, people enjoying themselves with the food, songs in the jukebox changing from classic rock to acoustic wonders, it was all there. The wonder, the laughs, the joy was enough to keep everyone and even someone as impatient as Hilda occupied. 

After about two hours of partying, Raven Leader went behind the stage and grabbed a microphone to alert everyone. 

"Everyone!"

All the party goers along with Hilda, Frida, David, Twig, and Johanna and Alfur stop partying when the loud voice is heard from the speakers. 

"You may have all noticed a special black box sitting in the middle of the food table. A special box for a special girl. Wanderer, adventurer, and honored Sparrow Scout among us all. Hilda, open the box," Raven Leader said.

Hilda slowly walked up to the black box and looked at it for a moment. The box had a latch connecting the top and bottom layers of the box and the size of the box was big. Hilda lifted the latch and the box unlocked to her so she opened it and the girl couldn’t believe her eyes. The box contained a birthday cake on a metal rectangular plate.

The cake was the same colors as Hilda’s sweater. Red and grey. The cake had red icing on the edges and had a message on the cake itself made of icing saying “Happy Birthday, Hilda!” which made Hilda smile along with Hilda noticing two candles on it spelling out “15.” With this gift from the heavens, all of Hilda’s embarrassment from school and her guard on protecting her sweater vanished when she looked at the cake.

Johanna walked up and carefully took the cake out of the box by holding its metal plate and asked Hilda to move the black box off the table. Once she did, Johanna placed the cake back on the table. 

"Anyone got a lighter?" Johanna asked while looking around to see looks of “no” on everyone’s faces except for Raven Leader. 

"I have one. Always prepared for anything."

Raven Leader left the stage, walked over to the table and handed Johanna her lighter. 

"Thanks," Johanna mentioned and then began to light the candles for Hilda. Once the candles were lit, Johanna gave the lighter back to Raven Leader and backed away so Hilda could blow out the candles as everyone approached her from all angles.

Everyone then began singing the usual “Happy Birthday” song to the 15 year old girl and Hilda blushed at it all. It was all a calming, peaceful moment of wonder and joy. So once the song was over, Hilda blew out the candles with everyone cheering. Frida and David gave Hilda a massive hug along with Johanna joining in. Even Twig tried to hug his owner by rubbing his body against Hilda’s leg.

Suddenly, the power went out. Everything went from yellow to black in an instant, making everyone wonder what happened as they stand in place. "What happened?" David asked.

"Power went out. Maybe it was an outage. A spike," Raven Leader suggested. “I’ll go look for the breaker and see what’s wrong," Raven Leader added and struck her lighter on, giving her a slight bit of yellow light among the massive crowd.

"What do we do?" A random stranger asked. 

"Don’t move. You’ll bump into something and hurt yourself," Raven Leader ordered.

Raven Leader walked off and went behind the curtains of the stage to find a circuit breaker while everyone stood in place among the darkness. The only thing people should make a glimpse of is a small light coming from the windows, that being the moon.

After a while, nothing happened. Just muttered words from the crowd as they try to make their own conclusions on why the power went out. Then Raven Leader came back and illuminated part of the room with her lighter. 

"The breaker isn’t even working at all. Phones are out, too."

"Maybe a power line went out?" Johanna mentioned.

"Most likely. You all sit down on the floor while I go out and get some help, yeah?"

Everyone nodded and everyone sat down on the floor just so they wouldn't get exhausted from standing for too long. Raven Leader carefully walked past everyone and everything, which resulted in her leaving the lodge to get help on the power situation.

David slowly began to breathe heavily. Probably due to his childhood fears coming back to haunt him, so Hilda crawled over to the teenage boy without bumping into anyone else and hugged him. The boy then hugged Hilda back and his breathing calmed down as they sat among the dark room filled with people.

"Thank you," David said, and he then placed his head on Hilda’s shoulder. 

"Don’t worry about it," Hilda welcomed. Hilda began noticing a sound. A thud of some sorts. Then another one that was closer than before. 

Out of nowhere, Raven Leader ran back through the doors and immediately closed them behind her. The woman was visible as she ran through them, but when the doors closed, it was all dark again. 

"What’s going on?" Frida asked. Raven Leader then ordered Frida to stay quiet by making a hush noise without saying a single word. Raven Leader slowly walked through the darkness, past the people, past the tables, and made it to Hilda. 

"Listen to me. Do not scream," she spoke quietly.

"I know what’s going on. There’s a Barghest outside. It’s why the power went out," Raven Leader explained to everyone and David’s anxiety grew beyond Hilda’s control so Frida jumped in on the hug before the boy would start screaming for help. The only thing Hilda could hear was David’s heavy breathing within the dark. 

"We’re going to stay here and let it pass. We can’t get help, so we’ll have to wait it out."

Hilda’s thoughts about the Barghest came back to her. Memories of one named Jellybean when she was 11. Could it be the same one? Hilda had to know. 

"Was there a Nisse on it?"

"What? No. I didn’t see one, at least. Why would a Nisse be on a Barghest?" Raven Leader asked. Maybe this is a different Barghest. 

"You remember that one that vanished a few years ago? It’s owner was a Nisse. Are you sure it didn’t have one on it?" Hilda questioned.

"No," Raven Leader answered. So it is a different Barghest after all. "We just need to wait it all out. So just stay quiet and things will be alright. I hope."

At that point, David began to calm down and now things were quiet...except for the thuds. They got louder and louder to the point where it was as loud as a speaker. Then the windows got dark. Hilda knew what blocked the windows and it was the Black Hound itself.

Everyone was quiet. Now Hilda could hear her heartbeat as the Barghest walked around the building. Johanna then joined in on the hug mainly to protect her baby girl with her life. However, the Barghest then looked through one of the windows and the eyes were glowing. Yellow.

The entire room was illuminated and everyone was exposed. Hilda heard a sudden noise of growling and then the entire wall was destroyed. Once the dust was settled, the beast was shown. It was massive and it was all black. The only thing Hilda could really determine was the outline of the monster and the blinding yellow eyes. 

So as a result, everyone started running towards the door panicking. David’s anxiety went from zero to one hundred instantly as everyone ran towards the door. Hilda joined the screaming crowd along with her mother with their pursuit towards the door and then she noticed David having trouble walking along with falling on his knees so Hilda ran back with Twig following and helped him up by placing his arm over her shoulder. Frida joined in to help out by placing David’s right arm over her shoulder as well.

Soon after, the girls and the boy with a panic attack end up outside to see the sea of people getting in their cars or trying to find their children among the madness. 

"Frida, take David and go," Hilda ordered.

"What are you going to do?" Frida asked, now carrying David alone. "Just go find your parents and go!"

Hilda ran off of the steps of the Sparrow Scouts HQ in search of Johanna with Twig with her. 

"Mum! Mum!"

Aside from screaming people running away from the party crasher, no response came from Johanna or Hilda didn’t notice. However, Hilda had bigger problems on her hands. That being the Barghest, now having walked past the walls and standing to the left side of the parking area. Standing tall and proud of the chaos it caused.

The yellow eyes beaming down upon people now driving away with their kids. Hilda stood at awe at how big the Barghest was. Taller than Jellybean. The Barghest looked roared as loudly as possible which caused Hilda and others to cover their ears. Then the Barghest took notice of Hilda, illuminating her like a helicopter’s spotlight.

"HILDA!" Johanna’s voice roared through the screaming crowd and Hilda noticed her mother standing a couple of feet away from Hilda to her left. 

"Mum!"

Hilda immediately ran to Johanna and the two hugged. 

"Come on! We gotta go!" Johanna explained while beginning to run towards her car only to stop at the sight of the Barghest. 

"Ah, forget it! This way!"

Johanna then began running in the opposite direction with Hilda and Twig following as everyone else either ran together or drove away recklessly. To the horror of Hilda, Johanna, Alfur, and Twig, the Barghest began following them as they all ran down the hill towards the Huldrawood. They all even noticed a powerline knocked down to the ground which explained the ongoing power outage.

The Huldrawood had a giant hole in its wall, probably caused by the Barghest itself, and Johanna didn’t care. The woman took her daughter, the elf, and deerfox into the Huldrawood through the massive hole in the wall.

Hilda ran through the dark with Johanna as they were all chased. It was like a living nightmare for them being chased by a monster that lit the trees with its yellow eyes and shadows casting down from what wasn’t exposed.

They ran, ran, and ran as the Barghest destroyed trees in front of it to catch up to the runners. Johanna looked behind her to see that the Barghest was far behind her and her daughter, but before she could change directions, everyone fell in a small ditch.

Johanna landed on her face along with Hilda and Twig following into the small pit of darkness only broken with a small shade of the moonlight. Hilda got up and crawled over to her mother. 

"What do we do now?" Alfur quietly asked. 

"Shut up," Johanna mentioned as she backed up against the dirt wall with Hilda and Twig.

The ditch was small, but it could hide someone when in danger and now was the time. The only thing they could really see was dirt from part of the moonlight shining through the trees. Johanna backed up against part of the wall where there was no moonlight shining at all, so everyone could hide away from the Barghest. They hid on the left side of the dirt wall together.

They all heard the massive thuds from the Barghest running to catch them and they see the Barghest pass them from underneath. Then it stopped moving. The Barghest began sniffing around, searching for its prey.

The beast then noticed the ditch in the ground and illuminated part of it with its eyes. The scent of its next meal was near, but it couldn’t see it due to it being too big to peek its entire head into the ditch so it started to dig out the ditch. Johanna looked over to Hilda due to the possible contingency.

"Hilda, I’ll chase it off and I want you to run," Johanna whispered. 

"Mum, no," Hilda retorted. 

"Just do it. I’ll be fine."

Hilda began to have a look of depression on her face, knowing that Johanna could potentially die from doing this, so she tightly hugged Johanna as a way of saying “no” as the Barghest dug through the dirt. With Johanna’s plan to run off to save her girl, Alfur managed to jump over to Hilda’s shoulder so he wouldn’t be harmed in all of this.

Before they knew it, the ditch was dug whole and the Barghest found everyone. Johanna then got up as soon as it saw them, climbed out of the ditch alone, and proceeded to scream at it as an attempt to get it to follow her. So the Barghest silently agreed and both of them ran off away from the ditch. Hilda was horrified to see her mother in harm’s way so the teenager got up, climbed out of the ditch along with Twig, and then began to follow the beast by noticing the yellow light from the eyes following Johanna. 

"MUM!"

Hilda ran after the two and it now was a literal nightmare to her. Hilda’s heart was pounding as she ran through the dark forest to save her mother from the beast of the night and after several minutes of endless running through the Huldrawood, Hilda’s heard a grunt from Johanna. It was faint, but she heard it. 

It seemed that Johanna tripped on a rock covered up by leaves and is now crawling away from the Barghest until she had her back placed against a tree with the giant beast looming over her.

"MUM!"

Hilda’s scream drew the beast’s attention over to her for a moment, but then turned its head back to Johanna to prepare to eat her. Hilda was in terror at what she was about to witness until she noticed a slight white light beginning to take the darkness’ place after hearing what sounded like an explosion. Was it a star? Was it the moon growing brighter due to the sun being behind it? No, it was something else entirely.

The white light slowly grew brighter and brighter along with everyone else noticing. Even the Barghest taking note of it all. It began to blind everyone to the point where they had to either look down to the ground or close their eyes entirely. Hilda’s eyes were closed, but even then, the blinding white didn’t stop becoming worse to the point where Hilda had to place her hands over her eyes to even get the slightest bit of help. Then the ground started to rumble. Could it be part of the white blindness? Most likely.

After a while, Hilda lost her balance and fell onto the ground due to the shakiness of the ground and then she began to hear the loudest noise she has ever heard in her life. The girl began to scream, but she couldn’t hear herself at all! All Hilda could hear was this ringing noise that got louder. 

Hilda tried to press on with trying to save her mother by getting up, but she couldn’t see anything at all other than white. The girl lost her sense of reality all together. Hilda was truly alone. Then out of nowhere, a sudden wave forcefully pushed Hilda through the air and the teenager had no clue where she was now other than being in the air. Then Hilda’s back impacted against what felt like a tree and the laws of physics sent the back of Hilda’s head into the tree as well, leaving her unconscious.


	2. Pain

Hilda awoke to find herself in a hospital bed among a sea of other people suffering. There were doctors and nurses running from place to place to treat each patient. Hilda took notice of a guy who had his limbs completely amputated, but there were no cut marks or bones to be seen. It was like his skin grew back over the amputations. Another person was screaming because they couldn’t hear anything, then another who couldn’t see anymore, people who have lost their hands, feet, ears, whatever body part that could be lost without dying. It was horrifying to see, but was nothing compared to what Hilda had discovered with herself.

Hilda noticed that she couldn’t really lift her arms or legs. They felt numb, or at least she felt like she lost control of them. Then she found the real problem: Her arms and legs were...stretched out. Both her arms and legs were on the floor as if they were spaghetti. Hilda began to panic, hyperventilating which then turned to screaming.

Hilda couldn’t move really. It was awful for her to experience the loss of control and numbness of her body. The horrified teenager even noticed that her body has grown even bigger than her normal height which then horrified Hilda even more beyond her comprehension. She couldn’t calm down at all and after screaming for several minutes and trying to regain control of her body again without success, she ended up passing out completely.

Hilda awoke again in a room alone. The room was pale blue with rows of empty beds except for Hilda. A stark contrast to what she was in before. Wait, the room was different. Perhaps, she was moved. People probably thought that having her near mangled bodies was too much so moving her might have been the best option.

How much time has passed? What happened to Johanna, Alfur, Twig, David, Frida, everyone? Why was Hilda’s arms and legs stretched out? In fact, they still are. Hilda noticed that once again, but instead of screaming like before, she fearfully started to examine what happened to her. 

It was like her body was pulled apart, but without the joints of the body giving out and releasing a gory aftermath. Hilda’s arms and legs were still on the ground all cluttered together like spaghetti. The teenager had no idea what to make of this at all other than the facts that were put in front of her.

Maybe this was the result of what that white nightmare was like and Hilda wasn’t the only victim. Could be the case, but Hilda had to learn the answer from someone else. All of this could be from something else, but that’s highly doubtable.

Then Hilda noticed two people entering the room from a door on the far left side, it was Johanna…..and Alfur. What blew Hilda’s mind aside from her own body being more mangled than anyone else was that Alfur was now the size of a normal person, yet he kept his same look. The elf was as tall as Johanna now.

Hilda even noticed Twig jumping up on her bed to snuggle up with her as the two figures in Hilda’s life slowly walked up to her without stepping on her arms and legs while having a disturbed look on their faces.

"Mum. Alfur. What happened?!" Hilda yelled out.

"Calm down, just calm down," Alfur began. 

"I...I don’t even know. It was all white and then everyone and everything was in some sort of agony, maybe," Johanna tried to explain without breaking down. 

"What do you mean? Why is Alfur as tall as you now?"

"Let me talk. Ok, I need to make sense of this. So after that...bang or something, you were knocked out. I picked you up and I didn’t even notice that I was….as tall as Johanna here. Then I started to notice your arms...and people were panicking, power gone out in some places….and a lot of people...died. No, all things really. Not just humans. Come here," Alfur said and he then gave Hilda a hug to calm her down.

Hilda couldn’t return the favor for the now human sized elf, but it was peaceful to her despite the circumstances. Hilda felt like she was in the once peaceful bliss she was then waking up yesterday and with this peace, Hilda felt her arms and legs moving so she slightly looked to the side and noticed that her left arm was forming back to normal. The once scared girl even noticed that she was wearing the same clothes from the party. Sweater and black pants, yet they didn’t rip apart when her arms were stretched at all.

Maybe her new desire for wanting to hug Alfur somehow gave her control of her arms again, an ability to make her body normal again. Even Hilda’s sudden size growth began to shrink down to her normal size and after a few moments, Hilda had control of her body again and she returned the hug to Alfur.

Eventually, the two separated and Hilda took notice of Johanna who was now seeing that her daughter was able to fix herself back to normal and it blew her mind. Without thinking, Johanna rushed over and tightly hugged Hilda with all of the love a mother could share. Both with hope and terror.

"I guess that marks the first time we ever had a hug, right?" Alfur asked with a both happy and scared look on his face. 

"Yeah, it was," Hilda answered. As Hilda spoke, Twig managed to get in between both Hilda and Johanna to give his owner a sense of hope as well. "Hey, boy."

With Twig now being in the middle of the party, the mother and daughter separated so the deerfox could have a moment. Twig then started to lick Hilda’s face so much so that she had to lay back in her bed pillow while laughing. 

"So, you ready to go home?" Johanna asked. Hilda nodded her head in agreement as she was trying to deal with a happy Twig. After all of this, she was ready to go home and maybe learn about why all of this happened to her to begin with or at least learn what she became.

Once Johanna signed in the required paperwork necessary to release Hilda from the intensive care, Hilda could now go home. Walking wasn’t easy for Hilda as she learned that she was out for a week and a half. When she was last awake or before the accident, it was a Friday. Now with her being out for twelve days, today was Wednesday.

With being bedridden for that amount of time would require the body to 'wake up' for normal function, so Alfur had to place Hilda’s arm around his shoulder and carry her to Johanna’s car before they all went back to their home.

Trolberg was a mess. Johanna explained everything that happened from the days Hilda was out. Apparently after what is now called “The Anomaly,” it affected most when it came to biological life along with some non-biological entities. Power went out in certain districts of the city, people vanished from existence along with creatures such as Woffs, Trolls, you name it. People lost their limbs, but never lost any bit of blood at all and their skin already grew over the area as if they had the injury for decades with the same result applying to creatures as well along with having different body parts entirely.

Johanna even said that the Barghest which chased them from the night of the party just vanished from existence similar to what happened to many others throughout the world. Some people even turned into nightmarish gorefests that didn’t even look like a human being anymore when they were hugging another person at the time or doing explicit activities.

Some people had their height changed while others shrunk down either slightly or all the way to nothing which explains why Alfur was now as tall and wide as a normal human being.

With the size change, Woffs became either smaller or became behemoths that flew over the city. Same rules apply with Trolls or any type of creature around, but from Johanna’s words, the only recorded human height change so far was 20ft. That’s only what Johanna told Hilda during the ride, and it blew Hilda’s mind along with the fact that there’s others out there that weren't affected at all like Johanna herself.

As for society as a whole in Trolberg, it was recovering with people trying to get used to their new changes. Jobs were basically done for with recovering employees going on paid leave from their bosses if their bosses were still around or not a mangled mess. School was cancelled entirely so kids could recover along with their parents or even try to find new families because of the fact of people vanishing.

Of course, some of the kids suffered many of the same fates as everyone else. Hilda didn’t even want to think about that...wait. Frida and David. Hilda had to make sure they were alright. 

"Mum?"

"Yes?" Johanna asked while keeping her eyes on the road going through the now depressing city of grey. 

"Are David and Frida alright?"

"They’re fine. I talked to them along with their parents a few days ago and they’re fine," Johanna reassured Hilda, which gave the girl a sense of closure to her sudden realization.

"I’ll have to call them at home," Hilda said, as she sat in the backseat of the car with Twig in her lap.

"I wonder how the counties back at home are doing," Alfur mentioned. "They’re probably like us if this has been affecting everyone the same way," Johanna answered. As Hilda pet Twig to keep her happiness alive with her right hand, her arm suddenly stretched out again and plopped onto the car’s floor to her surprise. Hilda screamed in response and Alfur turned around while he sat in the passenger seat to see why Hilda became scared again. 

"Calm down. Don’t become more fearful than what you already are, alright?"

Alfur then softly placed his right hand on Hilda’s left hand. 

"Actually, how did you get your arm back?" Alfur asked cautiously. 

"I...I just had a thought in my head and it just came back," Hilda answered. "I don’t know, Alfur."

"Ok...just think of...wanting your arm back or something," Alfur suggested and Hilda began to try to calm herself as the drive kept going on. Just thinking of a time before the madness and reversing what her arm currently did just now. Then it began to work. Hilda’s arm began to unshift into a long, lanky mess and instead was going back to it’s normal form...until it randomly plopped back on the floor again to Hilda’s disappointment. "What am I doing wrong?"

"I don’t know, Hilda. Just relax, alright? We’ll get you home and we’ll all figure this out," Alfur explained and then the car pulled up to the curb next to the apartment. 

"Alfur, take Hilda inside while I get the car in the garage."

"Sure," Alfur said and he then tried to get out of the car, but he forgot how to exit the car. "Where’s the door handle?" Johanna then moves her body to the left while extending her left arm, grabbing the door handle, and opening the door for Alfur. "Thanks."

Alfur got out of the car and walked around the back of the vehicle to only end up on the right side of the backseat door. Hilda noticed the Elf looking at the door for a moment before remembering how to open a car door by himself so he opened the door and saw Hilda with Twig on her lap. 

"Hilda, do you think you need help?" Hilda looked at Alfur and then she looked at her legs as she tried to move them outside the car only to lose control of her legs as well. "So that’s a yes, then," Alfur answered his own question as he then picked up Hilda with both of his arms, carrying her with Twig now on her belly, out of the car and towards the apartment building as Johanna got out of the car so she could open up the garage.

Alfur walked up to the door while he carried both Hilda and Twig, tried to open the front door with his right hand, but then realized that the door was locked, so he looked over at Johanna who had just got the garage opened. "Johanna?"

Johanna then turned to see the three. "Keys?" The mother wondered and Alfur nodded his head. Johanna then took the pair of keys to the apartment from her pants pocket, tossed the keys over to Alfur, but the problem was that he couldn’t grab it since he was carrying Hilda. However, Hilda managed to grab the keys with her left arm and she then unlocked the door while trying to not cause her arm to plop on the ground all stretched out.

"Thank you," Alfur said as he began walking up the stairs with the girl and the Deerfox in his arms. 

"How’d you react to all of this?" Hilda asked.

"What do you mean?" Alfur questioned Hilda.

"I mean you being...so tall. Last I saw you, you were as tiny as a paperclip," Hilda answered with growing curiosity.

"Oh, that. Right. Let’s get you to bed first and then I’ll talk," Alfur suggested as he made it up to the stairs. Hilda unlocked the apartment and opened the door for the tall elf.

The apartment looked the exact same as how it was left. The crimson colors, the furniture, the fridge, everything. It was all the same. Even the power wasn’t affected by “The Anomaly.”

Alfur carried both Hilda and Twig into the old familiar bedroom, looking the same as before, and the tall elf placed both the girl and the deerfox on the bed. Still, Hilda’s right arm and legs were stretched out while she laid on the bed to rest up. So, with Alfur telling Hilda that he’ll explain things, he sat down on the far end of the bed near Hilda’s feet and he tried to piece together the night of the party twelve days ago.

"Alright. I remember after you were slammed into a tree and hitting your head, I ended up landing on the grass far away from you. I had to readjust to everything after that awful piercing noise and light so after I did exactly that, I got up...and noticed that I wasn’t tiny anymore. I was only able to see due to the moonlight, but I knew something was different with me. The Barghest had disappeared out of nowhere, you were out cold, and Johanna had to pick her jaw off the floor from seeing me being over five feet tall now,’’ the elf explained.

"We found you and we took you to the ER along with everyone else who had their kids or themselves all… messed up,’ Alfur then placed his hands on his face remembering the previous days. "I’ve seen things. I’ve seen people all….I can’t even…"

Hilda noticed that Alfur was tearing up at remembering what was without a doubt his own trauma from seeing so many people mangled up from “The Anomaly” that he didn’t even want to recount the days at all.

In response, Hilda lifted herself up from the waist up and placed her left hand on Alfur’s shoulder. The now crying elf looked at the girl and then hugged her tightly as Hilda hugged Alfur with her left arm. "I was so scared that you were gone," Alfur softly said. 

"I thought I was gone, too,’ Hilda mentioned while she hugged the sad elf.

"It’s just good to be home. And I guess you being big is a good thing, right?’ Hilda curiously asked. Alfur then sighed. 

"What?"

"I don’t know if it is a good thing, Hilda," Alfur said, separating from the hug and now standing up in front of Hilda. "Why?"

"You know why. Home, the reports, everything involving the colony. Everytime I try to write a report, I always get angry because my hands are too big to even write on the paper to begin with...and I don’t even have hands!"

"Oh," Hilda said softly and lowered her head with a depressed look. 

"Yeah. I’m sorry, I need to relax. I guess I could go get some sleep on the couch and then figure things out," Alfur finished the conversation and began to walk towards the door. 

"Alfur?"

Alfur then stops walking and looks at Hilda. 

"Yeah?" Hilda then reached out with her left arm in an attempt to say “I want a hug,” but her arm ended up stretching out and then falling onto the ground. 

The elf knew exactly what Hilda wanted, so he walked back and gave the teenage girl a tight hug.

"For the record, at least I’m able to hug you finally," Alfur mentioned and the two stayed in a hug for a long time until Johanna finally entered the room to see the two hugging.

"It’s good to see some sort of happiness for once," Johanna spoke up, breaking the silence in the room and Alfur turned around which broke the hug. "Alfur, you go and get some rest. I’ll stay with Hilda."

Alfur then walked towards the door of the bedroom past Johanna, but before leaving, the tall elf had some final words for the conversation. 

"Hilda, don’t be afraid."

The elf left the room and Johanna now had all the time in the world to talk. The woman walked over to Hilda’s bed while not stepping on Hilda’s arms or legs and she sat down next to Hilda the same way Alfur did as Hilda lowered herself back onto the bed.

Instead of a long talk like before, Johanna grabbed Hilda’s left arm that was over the bed, placed it over herself and laid down beside Hilda. Not only that, Johanna just silently hugged her daughter and closed her eyes to sleep beside Hilda. 

"I love you, Mum," Hilda said. 

"I love you, too." Shortly after, the two fell asleep with Twig joining them.

Hilda woke up in her room and it was dark. Johanna was gone, but Twig stayed around. The girl’s arms and legs were still stretched out to where the hands and feet were on the floor, but Hilda wasn’t going to let that stop her.

The blue haired adventurer turned her body to her right and before she knew it, she fell on the floor while unintentionally wrapping herself with her right and left arms as she rolled on the ground. Thankfully, Twig woke up before the event and jumped out of the way onto the floor to see his owner tangled up in her own arms.

"MUM! ALFUR!" Hilda yelled out while she tried to roll around with no success, struggling to get out of the entanglement she caused by accident all for the goal of just wanting to walk.

Several seconds later, both Alfur and Johanna bursted into the room with the light from the other rooms peaking into Hilda’s room. The two notice a Hilda that was wrapped around with her own arms on the floor and they immediately run over to help her as Hilda begins to cry.

"Please help me! Please!" Hilda yelled as the two adults kneeled down to try to figure out how to help. 

'Alright, calm down. We’ll help. Just...let us figure this out," Alfur said while examining the nightmare at hand.

The 5ft elf noticed that Hilda’s arms rolled over her just in one direction so all that’s needed to be done is just roll Hilda’s body to the left and her arms would unwrap her body. So Alfur did exactly that and how he did it was that he rolled Hilda slightly to the left, pulled her back by her arms to where she originally was laying from and repeated the process until Hilda was completely free from her own arms.

"Thank you," Hilda said as she laid on the carpet ground. Johanna immediately crawled over and hugged Hilda like how she did once before. "Why did you get out of bed like that?" Johanna asked.

"I just wanted to be with you. That’s all," Hilda answered. 

"You’ll hurt yourself trying to walk while like this….I..I don’t even know what to think of all of this," Johanna responded, still hugging Hilda. 

"Hilda, you remember what I said? Just think."

Alfur’s words began a series of thoughts in Hilda’s mind about simple times where her body wasn’t a contorted mess due to this “Anomaly” event. A time where there was friendships, creatures, and adventures. No harm and no deaths at all.

With those thoughts in mind along with wanting to regain control of her body, Hilda’s limbs were coming back to her. The limbs of the girl’s body were dragged back into a normal length and Hilda was in control of her body once again so she hugged her mother. Maybe Hilda might lose control again, but as of now, she may be ready to begin walking.

"I think I’m ready to walk," Hilda spoke while still hugging her mother and after Hilda said that, the two separated. 

"I...I don’t know," Johanna concernedly said.

"Johanna, I think it’s time that Hilda gets to be at least with someone for a while and maybe she can figure this out. If she can do it for a bit then at least let her try," Alfur argued which resulted with Johanna getting on her feet and offering Hilda a hand.

Hilda accepts the offer by using her left hand to grab Johanna’s right hand and the mother pulls Hilda off the ground. After a wobby beginning, Hilda was able to control her legs and stand up on her own.

"You sure you got this?"

"I do, Mum," Hilda answered. The girl took her first step towards the door and at first, she wobbled, but again was able to maintain her position and take a second step without error this time. Then Hilda began walking towards the door with ease and she stopped when she was beside the door frame to turn around and see the two who helped her back up. 

"I guess I am a little hungry," Hilda said.

"Cucumber sandwiches?" Johanna asked with a sudden smile on her face. Hilda then let out a short laugh and agreed to the offer, then walking into the living room by herself.

The night turned into a simple relaxation with Hilda resting on the couch as both Alfur and Twig joined her while Johanna worked on making the cucumber sandwiches for everyone. To avoid having her limbs stretching out again, Hilda sat on the couch with both of her legs crossed and both of her arms on her lap.

"I tried writing a report today," Alfur began with a depressed look. 

"And I guess it went wrong?" Alfur nodded his head in agreement.

"I got angry. I don’t normally get angry or like ever, but there I was. Yelling at not being able to write on a tiny piece of paper. I had to use a tiny tool to even get a few papers out of the clocktower."

"Why not just write on normal sized paper?" Hilda asked. 

"Well, if I did, I wouldn’t be able to send it to the colony. It would probably take a small army to bring a giant piece of paper back to a simple colony. It just feels weird to not be writing all the time now," Alfur finished.

"I’m sorry," Hilda sympathetically replied. 

"Don’t be. Not your fault. It just feels weird that I now have to adjust to human life and such. Maybe I shouldn’t focus on writing and just try to focus on everything else?"

"Maybe," Hilda answered and then the look on Alfur’s face became sad with the girl’s answer. "Come here," Hilda mentioned as she then moved over to the other side of the couch without harming Twig and hugged Alfur.

"Thanks," Alfur spoke, while now hugging Hilda and then Johanna showed up with two cucumber sandwiches for both Hilda and Alfur. 

"I made one for myself. I’ll be back," Johanna said after handing both plates to the two and she then left for the kitchen.

"I don’t even know where to sleep aside from here. The couch," Alfur mentioned as Hilda took a bite of the tasty sandwich. "Well, Alfur, if Hilda is open to the idea, you could sleep with her," Johanna said, overhearing the conversation. "Yeah, Alf. I’m good with that," Hilda answered after clearing her mouth of the sandwich.

"Really? You’d let me do that?" Alfur curiously asked with his depression slowly dying off. 

"Yes. Absolutely," Hilda happily answered and then took another bite of the sandwich.

"Thank you. Really," the Elf said and he began to eat his own cucumber sandwich. 

"Hm. That’s great. Wow," Alfur mumbled while eating the sandwich and then Johanna stood behind the couch with her own cucumber sandwich. 

"Hey, Hilda, you mentioned that you wanted to call David and Frida, yeah?"

"Yeah, Mum?" Hilda answered and she then finished the sandwich with one last bite. 

"I’ll get the phone, bring it to you as long as you don’t break the cable from the wall, and you can talk to them."

After Johanna mentioned this, she walked over to the home phone which was on the wall, grabbed the phone and dialed David’s home number first while holding her plate with her other hand, went back to the couch and handed the phone to Hilda.

The night went on with Hilda talking to David and they both checked in on each other. David mentioned that his mother no longer needed to wear glasses and his father lost his right middle finger. What surprised Hilda the most is that David told her that his eyes are completely different. “No longer small like they normally were,” the boy mentioned during the conversation and Hilda didn’t believe it. She would have to see it for herself. The two said their goodbyes and Hilda ended up calling Frida afterward.

Hilda called Frida and thankfully, Frida and her family weren't affected by “The Anomaly” at all. Hilda told Frida everything that happened to her and of course, Frida did say her sorries for the situation and hoped that Hilda would find a way to become more controlling of her body. The two girls said their goodbyes and hung up their phones.

After the family finished their meals along with helping out Alfur in case he forgot how to eat like a normal person would, everyone prepared themselves to sleep. Johanna went into her bedroom by herself while the teenager, the elf, and the deerfox went into Hilda’s room to sleep together.

"Want to sleep next to the window, Alfur?" Hilda asked. 

"No, you’ll probably fall out and I’ll have to unwrap you like last time. You sleep next to the window, alright?"

"Sure. You lay down and I’ll get into PJs," Hilda said, grabbing a set of blue & black pajamas and then walking off into the hallway, mainly going into the bathroom to swap out clothes.

After finally changing into a set of pajamas and placing her old clothes in the laundry which included the sweater too, Hilda went back into the room to see Alfur waiting for her to get into the bed first so he could join. 

"Hey," Alfur mentioned. 

"Hey," Hilda replied, and she then climbed into bed near the window with Twig laying right in between Hilda and the window. Alfur joined in laying right beside Hilda.

"I miss my bed," Alfur began.

"Maybe I could help you out with whatever you're struggling with tomorrow?" Hilda mentioned and then turned her body to Alfur’s direction. "That’d be nice."

Seeing Alfur the size of a normal person still left Hilda at awe whenever she looked at him. What was once a tiny figure of life became just like everyone else which allowed Hilda to do what she always wanted to do for years: Give Alfur a hug.

So that’s exactly what she did. Hilda gave Alfur a hug and also decided to lay her head on his chest, allowing Hilda to hear the Elf’s heartbeat as well. 

"At least one good thing happened today."

"And what’s that?" Alfur asked as he managed to place his left arm under Hilda to give her a hug. 

"Being able to hug you."

"I guess that is the one good thing of today. That and the sandwiches. That was nice," he mentioned. 

"Yeah. It was."

The two rested in bed together without saying a word for a few minutes, still awake and taking in the silence for once though the only thing Hilda was hearing was Alfur’s heartbeat.

Despite the sleepiness beginning to take over, Hilda had one last thing to say to Alfur before she let the void of dreams grab her. 

"Alfur?" 

"Yeah?" Alfur spoke. Hilda thought about what she had to say very carefully. Searching through her mind for anything to find the right words and...she settled on three very simple words. 

"I love you."

"Aw. Well… I love you, too, sweetpea.’ Alfur then placed his right arm over Hilda’s back and softly hugged her once again without letting go. The two eventually fell asleep and their pain was put at ease...for now.


	3. The Anomalied World

Chapter 3: The Anomalied World.

Hilda awoke to the same yellow shine from the sun and she noticed that Alfur was gone. Did Alfur get up without waking Hilda? At least Twig was still there with her, but Hilda had to know where Alfur went, so she got up as carefully as possible -without causing her body to contort again- and left her bedroom.

The teenage girl ended up walking into the living room to see both Johanna and Alfur trying to figure out how to write on such tiny paper. The living room’s coffee table in front of the couch did help out, but not by much at all.

Hilda silently walked up behind the couch to see Alfur trying to write on the tiny paper with a normal sized pen and she could notice how visibly angry he’s slowly becoming the more and more he fails. After the seventh attempt, he broke.

"DAMMIT!" Alfur yelled and stood up in a fit of rage. After his furious yell, the tall elf noticed Hilda standing behind the couch. 

"Hey," Alfur softly said and began walking around the couch with hugging Hilda afterward. Johanna turned around and noticed her daughter as well.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here," the Elf spoke again. 

"It’s alright," Hilda reassured while hugging Alfur. "I guess you got up early?"

"No. I...I had another nightmare," Alfur answered to Hilda’s surprise. 

"I assume Alfur told you about what he saw and such, Hilda?" Johanna joined in, still sitting on the couch and Alfur then lowered his head in shame. 

"Yeah…Don’t remind me."

The two separated and Alfur ended up walking back to sit down on the couch beside Johanna.

"I’m going to try this one last time. I can’t go without a report today to the colony."

Alfur grabbed the pin and carefully placed it on the tiny paper, he slowly began writing the first letter and after a slight bit of force, the tiny paper ripped and Alfur’s heart was broken. The elf hopelessly dropped the pin on the coffee table and placed his hands on his face before he began to cry, falling onto Johanna’s shoulder.

Hilda joined in on the hug by standing behind the couch and wrapping her arms around both Johanna and Alfur without them stretching out.

"How about we focus on other things?"

"Like what, Hilda?! Writing reports has been my job since...since forever, really. And now, I can’t write at all and it’s DRIVING ME CRAZY!" Alfur yelled out and began to sob on Johanna’s shoulder.

"Here’s an idea: How about we get Alfur in a new set of clothes and then go to Frida and David’s?" Johanna suggested.

"Why? I look just fine," Alfur argued.

"Walking around in the city and such, people will probably think you’re not wearing pants, so that’s why,’ Johanna explained. "Well, I’m not. Elves dress differently than humans and I’d rather not get into specifics. I do remember some people, ones that were able to see me, giving me looks like if I’m some sort of creep. I don’t know. I guess if we’re going to do this then there’s two color types that make me happy."

"And that is?" Hilda asked.

"Red and black," Alfur answered. 

"Alright. That’s the plan. Now I know where to go so I’ll take us to the local clothing shop and then we come home so Alfur can get fully dressed, and then we go to Frida’s and David’s," Johanna simplified and she then got up to get her wallet. 

"At least I’ll still have my hat."

After Hilda woke Twig up and got dressed as everyone else was getting ready, everyone got in Johanna’s car and began driving through the city towards wherever Johanna was taking them. Hilda witnessed the city in misery with people walking around having to deal with either them being 20ft, having to walk on crutches, or in this one case that Hilda happened to see: Two people being forced to share their bodies in one with parts being melded together like a mad scientist experiment. Their heads were fused together along with their torso, arms, legs, you name it. It was half and half of a person from side to side. It was an awful sight to witness.

Parts of the city had power while many other parts didn’t have power at all, where technicians were all over the place trying to restore power to the unpowered districts. Once the drive came to its conclusion, the crew arrived at a clothing store named “Soup.” An ironic name due to the fact that the store doesn’t sell any form of soup at all and sells “high quality clothes” instead.

Alfur decided to stay behind in the car with Twig while Hilda and Johanna went into the store to get a few sets of clothes for Alfur. The “Soup” store was like a hipster’s paradise. Clothes from out of this world along with classics that others don’t normally wear, but it’s known.

Fashion clothes that were typically overpriced to hell, oldies yet goodies, various types of shoes ranging from all types of well known brands to the indies, you name what you want and Soup has it.

Hilda and Johanna searched through the store for the right red and black clothes to find. They found the typical brand new hipster stuff which they obviously knew Alfur wouldn’t like so that was scrapped back on the shelf. They found some brand shirts which the elf would hate, went through all various types until Hilda stumbled upon a red and black long sleeved flannel shirt. It used buttons going across the middle of the shirt as well and Hilda had a good feeling about it as well.

So Hilda told Johanna about it and they agreed that it would look great on the elf. Johanna also managed to find a set of black pants with a black belt and black dress shoes as well along with white socks. After finding the clothes batch to get, they ended up getting three of each in terms of clothes. Three of the flannels, three of the pants, and one pair of the shoes.

Afterward, they went to the counter, bought them, and found themselves back in the car. 

"I don’t know what this is, but I love it," said Alfur as he examined the red and black flannels. 

"You wear red all the time and wanted red and black, so I found something that seemed nice," Hilda replied.

"Thank you. Really. I’ll have to get used to this stuff, but thanks."

The crew drove back all the way back home and spent a good portion of the day letting Alfur put on the clothes on his own in the bathroom while everyone else stayed in the living room to respect Alfur’s privacy. In the end, it all fit on him quite nicely.

Alfur looked different for once in his life with the flannel and black pants on. The Elf even managed to figure out how to put on the belt without help, but the only problem he had was tying the shoelaces.

So after asking for help, Hilda used the old methods that Frida taught her when she was 11 to help out along with showing the elf each step on how to tie shoelaces. Once everything was settled along with everyone going into the living room, the only thing that Alfur kept from his previous outfit was his cone shaped hat.

"How do I look?" Alfur asked. "You look great!" Hilda exclaimed and then ran over to hug the elf, but as Hilda ran, her legs became stretched out again and she fell on the floor. “Ow!"

Everyone else ran to Hilda to help her out and kneeled beside her. "Maybe I shouldn’t run anymore,"Hilda began, lying on the floor. "No...ugh….You know what? I’m going to carry you to the car," Alfur told Hilda and he did exactly that. The Elf turned Hilda over where she laid on her back, placed his left arm under Hilda’s back, his right arm under Hilda’s knees, and picked up the girl despite a bit of struggle.

"I got you. We’re not delaying Frida and David’s meet up because your legs don’t agree with us. We’re going anyway," Alfur ordered and he began walking towards the door with Johanna and Twig following. 

"Wait," Johanna said, stopping in her tracks.

"What?" Alfur asked.

"You put Hilda in the car. I’ll call Frida’s parents and see if we can pick her up and take her to David’s so everyone can be in the same place."

"We should’ve planned that earlier, but go ahead," Alfur finished, opening the door and leaving the apartment.

Once Alfur got outside and into the garage, he opened the left backseat door and placed Hilda in the back along with Twig jumping in. Then the elf got in the front passenger seat on the left side of the car as Hilda buckled her seatbelt.

"Don’t worry. We were able to reverse that...stuff before, we can do it again. Right?" Alfur asked after he turned around to see Hilda.

"Yeah. I’ll focus on that while we’re out."

"Good," Alfur finished and then turned back around, waiting for Johanna to show up.

"How do you think Frida and David will react to witnessing me like this?"

"They won’t hate you. That’s for sure. None of this is your fault. Me becoming five feet isn’t my fault either," Alfur answered and then sighed. "I hope the colony doesn’t hate me for not sending any more reports right now."

"You’ve been sending them reports for like four years now. Who knows, maybe they might not need them anymore," Hilda suggested and then Alfur turned back around quickly. "No. Reporting is the lifeline of Elven structure. It’s how we function as a society and with me being sent out with you for the goal of reporting on human life, I can’t just let that go. It’s like betraying them."

"I understand. I’m sorry," Hilda said and began lowering her head in regret. 

“Don’t be sorry. Like I said, none of this is your fault."

After Alfur mentioned this, Johanna surprised everyone when she opened the right side of the door and then Twig jumped into the car, going into the back seat of the car with Hilda as Johanna sat down in the driver’s seat. 

"Ready?" Johanna asked as she put on her seatbelt while Alfur put his on. 

"Yeah," the Elf answered. 

"Let’s get Frida," Johanna stated and started up the car engine.

It was now the afternoon. The crew drove across the city once again as Hilda saw more and more deranged people from the effects by “The Anomaly.” Of course, the city kept its bleak color tone despite the sun trying to remove that atmosphere from the emotions of Trolberg’s citizens. Yet, it didn’t matter. People were turned into mangled messes and no amount of sun radiation exposure can change that.

The crew of four arrived at Frida’s house and it was the same it always was, but they didn’t need to go inside since Frida was standing outside the house waiting for the car to arrive. Once it did, she got into the right back seat and then noticed Hilda’s outstretched legs on the floor as she buckled her seatbelt.

"Woah," Frida softly said to herself while examining Hilda’s legs. "That’s something I haven’t seen before until now, Hilda."

"Yeah. I think I figured out how it happens: When I run, become extremely stressed, or just random," Hilda explained. 

"Right. Come here."

Frida then scooted over slightly and gave her close friend a hug to comfort her as Johanna drove the car on the path towards David’s house. Frida then took notice at Alfur and became amazed. 

"Alfur...you’re tall now?"

"Yeah. Tell me about it," he answered. "Well, nice clothes at least," Frida mentioned and Alfur took a look at his new flannel, smiling afterward. "Thanks."

"So we’re all hanging out at David’s?" Frida curiously asked. 

"Yep," Johanna answered. "We have to find a light in the dark so this is the plan," she added.

The trip towards David’s was surprisingly quiet afterward as Hilda focused on making her legs normal again and after a while, she managed to do that right in front of Frida, to her friend’s astonishment. Hilda looked over to Frida and saw her jaw slightly open due to seeing her friend uncontort her own legs.

"Yeah, I can do that," Hilda explained and before she knew it, the car pulled up to David’s house. 

"We’re here," Johanna said, turning off the engine and she then got out of the car with everyone following.

"Also," Frida began which made everyone stop in their tracks.

"What, Frida?" Hilda asked. 

"I assume David told you about what happened?"

"His eyes?" Hilda mentioned and Frida nodded her head. "Yeah. I know about it. Is it that bad?"

"It’s not hurting him, but he looks like a different person altogether now," Frida answered. "Well...let’s not waste any time and find out," Hilda suggested and began to walk towards the front door again.

Hilda knocked on the door while everyone stood behind her and after some waiting, they finally got an answer and the person standing on the other side was David. David’s face did, in fact, surprise everyone except Frida. The boy’s eyes weren't dotted anymore.

David’s eyes were just like everyone else’s with an oval and pupils.

"Hilda!" David excitedly said and hugged Hilda. "It’s good to see you again!"

Despite the shock of seeing David’s eyes replaced completely by “The Anomaly,” Hilda accepted the hug from her close friend. David then took notice at Alfur and became surprised. "What happened to you?"

"I became five feet tall," Alfur answered monotonously. 

"At least I signed that contract thing back then," David replied and then continued the hug until the two eventually separated.

"You weren't wrong about your eyes," Hilda spoke and David’s face turned bleak.

"Yeah...Well come on, let’s talk about it in my room," the boy said and he then noticed his mother walk out of the house to see everyone.

Like what the boy said, David’s mother didn’t wear glasses anymore. Out of all the changes that happened in the world, that may be an improvement. 

"Hello."

"Hello," everyone said. 

"I guess the four of you came to hang out?" the boy’s mother asked and Hilda became confused. 

"Four? There’s five of us here if you don’t count Twig."

"Wait, where?" the mother asked, looking around for answers. 

"I’m right here," Alfur spoke to the mother’s surprise. 

"Oh, you have an elf with you?"

"Yeah. Have you signed the contract? I assume not," Hilda answered. 

"No. I never have because I never really had a reason to."

"I don’t have the papers on me, so it doesn’t matter," Alfur replied and then David’s mother backed up into the house, welcoming everyone to come in. The house was the same as it always was. Two floors, living room on the left, stairs on the right leading to David’s room. It was the same as always.

Johanna ended up staying downstairs with both of David’s parents while everyone else followed David to his room upstairs. David’s room was the same as everything else in the house. Blue walls, bean bag chairs, same desk with the same chair, you name it.

Hilda and Alfur sat down on the bean bag chairs with Twig in the girl’s lap, Frida sat in the desk chair, and David sat down on his bed. 

"So...tell me more about the party…" Hilda began.

"What else is there to say? We ran to our parents, I got into the car with Mum and Dad, drove down the hill, and then those white blinding lights showed up which made us crash into a tree," David answered. 

"Same with mine," Frida added. "So the Barghest just vanished?" Frida also added. 

"Yeah. Like I said. Gone. That’s a good thing though. Mum would’ve died if none of this happened, but I don’t know which is worse."

"I don’t know either, Hilda. From what I noticed, it has its ups and downs...mostly downs," David replied, now laying on the bed. 

"It has a lot of downs when it comes to me."

"Speaking of which, your body...stretches?" David asked. 

"Yeah. It does," Hilda answered. 

"Show me."

With David’s request, Hilda looked around the room to think of something she could reach out for and she noticed the window. So Hilda reached out with her left hand and her arm began stretching in the direction of the window. Just like Hilda expected, her arm didn’t get far and just fell on the floor in the middle of the room. "Woah," David said.

"I said the same thing," said Frida.

"You’re the only one I know of that can do that," David mentioned. "Really?" Hilda asked curiously. 

"Yeah. Maybe I missed someone, but you’re the only one so far."

"Huh, who knows. I’m sure someone like me is out there," Hilda answered.

"It’s a possibility. We don’t know what’s outside Trolberg. It could be worse," Frida suggested.

"I just hope that the colony isn’t losing their minds...oh what am I thinking? Of course they are," Alfur joined in.

"I wonder what happened to that trip Raven Leader talked about?" Hilda mentioned to Frida. 

"For right now, it’s cancelled. A lot of kids can’t even “function” properly at all, so who knows."

"Oh…" Hilda answered, almost to herself due to how quiet her response was. 

"Don’t worry about it. Just...just look after yourself and see if you can work out whatever you’re going through," Frida suggested, and then Johanna entered the room, noticing Hilda’s left arm.

"Ok...um, we all got an idea," Johanna began. 

"And that is?" Hilda asked. 

"We watch a movie together or as many as you want."

"Well, guys, you got anything in mind?" Hilda asked, looking at everyone. 

"I’m up for The Incredibles," David mentioned and everyone agreed. Everybody went downstairs after helping Hilda with her outstretched arm and they enjoyed themselves with several movies together so they could forget about their problems for a while.

They spent several hours watching movies from Incredibles, all the way to Shaun of the Dead. Once the night loomed over the city once again, it was time for the visitors to go home and since Hilda’s arm managed to fix itself during all this time, she was ready to go home.

Hilda said her goodbyes to her close friends and the crew of four went back home, driving through city blocks with yellow street lamps or in some cases having it be completely dark altogether due to the power outage.

The crew arrived back at home, placed the car in the garage, and found themselves back in the apartment. Ready to rest, Hilda got herself in a set of green and blue pajamas while everyone else was getting ready to sleep. Hilda arrived in her bedroom with the ceiling light on now to be in a similar situation like yesterday with Alfur waiting for Hilda to get in the bed first so she did exactly that. However, instead of just resting right there and then, Hilda looked out the window.

"What’s wrong?" Alfur began. "...Everything out there," the girl answered. 

"The best idea is to not focus on that and move on."

"I know, Alfur. It’s just that people are suffering," Hilda replied with a look of depression on her face and as a result, Alfur got into the bed and hugged Hilda. 

"There’s nothing you could’ve done to change this. It happened and we have to move on. Let’s just get some rest and we’ll figure things out like always."

Alfur then started to pull Hilda to lay down in the bed and she agreed to the suggestion. "Wait, what about the light?" Alfur asked.

"Twig."

Twig immediately got up from the bed, ran over near the door where the light switch was, jumped up, and flipped the light switch down with his front left leg which resulted with the room turning black. Afterwards, he came back to the bed and laid down with the two.

"Problem solved, I guess," Alfur finished. The elf and the child rested together in the same way they did yesterday. Hilda hugged Alfur and laid her head down on his chest, hearing his heartbeat once again while finally being able to sleep. 

"Goodnight, Alfur," Hilda spoke, breaking the silence in the room. "Goodnight, sweetpea."


	4. Doppelganger

Chapter 4: Doppelganger

The night was quiet. Dark with yellow hues from street lights, but quiet. Hilda and Alfur slept together peacefully as the night went on. No more pain for now, no more screaming, no more suffering. 

However, the fire escape from outside of Hilda’s window made some noise, which woke Hilda up. The room was dark like usual and Hilda still heard Alfur’s heartbeat until she lifted her head from the elf’s chest and looked towards the window.

The girl didn’t see anything and assumed that it might have been the wind slightly moving it since it has rusted over the years. So Hilda just laid back down the same way she did before and tried to go back to sleep, hearing the sounds of the elf’s heartbeat once again.

Then more noises came from the outside, once again, which prompted Hilda to get up and look out the window, yet instead of seeing nothing like before, she saw a silhouette of a person standing just outside of the window. So Hilda screamed, tripped over Alfur by backing up in the process, and landed on the floor as Alfur jolted up awake.

Alfur joined Hilda by falling out of the bed after he noticed the silhouette trying to open the window and Twig began growling loudly on the bed. Hilda, wanting to see who this is, noticed the light switch near the door in the room and ran towards it to switch the lights on only to fall on her face due to her legs becoming stretched out again like before.

Now only being near the door, Hilda looked at the light switch. This adventurer wasn’t going to give up that easily so she reached out with her right arm and it began pulling itself towards the light switch. Hilda found her hand right beside the switch and right as she flipped the light on, her arm fell on the floor like it always did.

Hilda turned herself around and she noticed that Alfur looked in astonishment along with Twig’s growling slowly turning itself down. The girl looked at the window and she saw why everyone was so confused. The person on the other side of the window was Hilda herself.

"Let me in!" the doppelganger spoke from outside and then Alfur went up to the window, seeing a surprised look on the doppelganger’s face. "Just...let me in."

Alfur then turned around and looked at Hilda. 

"What do I do?!" the elf asked. "Let her in," Hilda answered and Alfur did what the girl on the floor suggested.

The doppelganger entered the room and she looked older than Hilda, looked like she was beaten with bruises on her face and hands, clothes being torn, and she wore the same sweater Hilda had on the night prior. However, the doppelganger’s sweater was torn like the rest of her clothes and had white patches on her arms. To cap it off, the clone’s hair was in a ponytail and had the ends of her hair dyed pink.

"Ok...start explaining everything," Alfur demanded. 

"What day is it?" the doppelganger asked. Hilda tried to think of an answer, but with her time being out along with not paying attention to calendars, she didn’t know. "November 5th, 2005," Alfur answered.

"Ok, so...a week and half," she said to herself. 

"I’m...I’m sorry, but I need an explanation on what happened," she added.

"What do you mean?" Hilda asked. "I mean...look out there. Power out, people with their bodies contorted, and...Alfur being as tall as me!"

"Ok, you really need to start talking," Alfur demanded and after he said this, the doppelganger sat down on the bed near Twig and took a deep breath. 

"Where do I start?"

"I had a birthday party at the Sparrow Scouts HQ, I assume you had this party too since your arms are like that, and the Barghest attacked. Mum and I ran, though, hid, and Mum made the choice to offer herself as a way of saving me. She got cornered and...I jumped in front of it. It ate me."

"Wait, wait, wait. “The Anomaly” didn’t happen?" Alfur asked.

"What do you mean? What is that?" the woman asked with a look on her face that only the non-understanding could give.

Alfur and Hilda then gave each other looks of confusion and afterward, looked back at the older clone. "Um...what you said did happen...except for you being eaten. A white light came down on all of us, blinded and deafened us. I got around to my surroundings again and I realized that the Barghest was gone and I turned five feet tall. Hilda was out so we took her to the ER and...well you obviously know since you’re looking at her like this," Alfur explained.

"I’m the same way," the doppelganger said. 

"Really?"Hilda asked.

"Yeah. I guess the only difference is how we got this. This “Anomaly” gave it to you while I had to be cut out of the Barghest’s stomach with my arms being like that."

"You were...my god," Alfur said to himself and began walking towards Hilda. "So I guess the people out there and the power is part of what happened to you?"

"Yeah," Hilda answered. "Wow," the clone answered. 

"Ok, now explain why you’re here," Alfur mentioned. 

"Alright. I was working at my retail store like usual and then the same white light showed up. Then I ended up in a field far away from Trolberg. I noticed giant Woffs, mutilated Trolls that were still alive somehow, five foot tall Elves, and a blue tree. Yeah, a blue tree. And then I climb over Trolberg’s wall and see that it’s worse here."

"So “The Anomaly” is what brought you here. Yeah, that does make sense because there were reports of people vanishing. I guess the same thing happened to you," Alfur suggested and the doppelganger nodded her head. 

"What about your clothes? They’re torn and such," Hilda questioned. 

"I got into a fight with a shoplifter."

"Ah," Hilda finished. The doppelganger examined Hilda’s outstretched limbs as everyone was in silence. 

"Maybe we should let Johanna know about this," Alfur suggested and he began walking towards the door. "No. Let’s just get some sleep and the best way to show Mum is to just be blunt about it."

"Alright, but we need to help out Hilda here," Alfur suggested while pointing at Hilda. 

"Sure," the clone said and then got up, walking towards Hilda. 

"Ok, all you need to do is relax and think deeply for now. Think about wanting your body back in order and hold that in your head, yeah?"

Hilda took those words from her older clone to heart and began picturing herself back as normal again. The girl held the thought in her head as much as she could and by that point, her body began to reform back to its normal state.

After a few moments, it was back to normal and the doppelganger helped Hilda stand up. 

"I got an idea on how to do this: I sleep on the couch, Mum notices me, and then you walk out and explain."

"Doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world. We’ll have to tell her anyway so...let’s get to it," Hilda finished and then began walking back towards the bed. 

"Also, Hilda," the doppelganger said while now standing in the doorway and Hilda turned around. 

"If I’m going to be here for a while until things are fixed, we need to come up with some nicknames for ourselves," she said, turning off the light and leaving the room while closing the door.

"Well, that was something," Alfur remarked as Hilda closed the window.

"As a matter of fact, it was," Hilda replied, now climbing back into bed with the blanket over her after closing the window.

Alfur then joined his companion in the bed afterward and the two tried to get some sleep again, but Hilda couldn’t get the thought that a clone, a doppelganger, is in her house. The teenager would try to pretend she’s dancing by moving her feet, nodding her head to an invisible tune, but nothing worked at all. It just didn’t help her in the slightest and Hilda started to become frustrated. 

"I can’t sleep at all."

"I got an idea," Alfur said and then hugged Hilda, pulling her close to him like before. 

"And what’s that?"

Alfur cleared his throat and prepared himself to do what he had in mind which he knew would blow Hilda’s mind:

" _ Hold me close and hold me fast, this magic spell you cast, this is la vie en rose. When you kiss me, heaven sighs, and though I close my eyes, I see la vie en rose. When you press me to your heart, I’m in a world apart, a world where roses bloom. And when you speak, angels sing from above, everyday words seem to turn into love songs. Give your heart and soul to me, And life will always be la vie en rose." _

As Alfur sang this, Hilda fell asleep peacefully on Alfur’s chest. Once the song was over, the elf smiled at the fact that he was able to help Hilda sleep with his song. He joined Hilda in slumber and everything became silent.

Hilda woke up early in the morning. The sun was still rising from the ashes of the night and Hilda reminded herself that she would have to get ready to deal with Johanna’s reaction to the doppelganger.

The girl climbed out of the bed and she began shaking Alfur until he woke up. "You up this early? The Sun isn’t even...oh wait, it is slightly awake."

"I guess this whole clone thing managed to wake me early," Hilda mentioned and she began to lift Alfur up slowly. "Come on. Get up," she said.

"Hilda, I would like to get back to sleep. I don’t usually wake up at this hour and I get a bit cranky," Alfur said and then tried to get back to sleep by laying down on the bed again.

"And then Mum’s screams will wake you up and you’ll have to deal with that. Come on! I promise you that you can sleep for the rest of the day and night after this."

"Really?" the elf asked and Hilda nodded her head. Alfur sighed and then slowly got up from the bed, joining Hilda by following her to the door until the elf had a question. 

"What about Twig?"

Hilda looked over and saw her lovely companion still sleeping on the bed. 

"Let him sleep," Hilda said and Alfur then scoffed. 

"And not me?"

"Well, at least you can speak," Hilda retorted and the two walked into the living room to see the older version of Hilda sleeping on the couch peacefully.

"It’s so weird to see yourself. Just there," Hilda mentioned, staring at her doppelganger.

"It is. How about this? You go and deal with the laundry, washing your sweater and such, then I’ll look after this one. Alright?"

Hilda agreed to Alfur’s suggestion and went off to deal with the laundry. Both the dryer and washer was in a closet in the hallway going from the living room to Hilda’s bedroom. So Hilda grabbed the laundry from the basket in the middle of the closet which had her sweater and placed it in the washer along with soap-powders in it, turned on the washer and it began making the rounds.

"Should I wake her up?" Alfur asked as Hilda was walking back in the living room. "She did have a plan in mind, but it doesn’t really matter how we do this. The result will be the same so if you want to stick with the original plan or not, go at it."

"I thought you said it wasn’t the worst idea in the world last night," Alfur argued. 

"Yeah. We could go with this or you could wake her up and we make a new one. She most likely expected me to wake up after she was discovered," Hilda countered.

"Right. I guess...I’ll wake her up," Alfur finished and began to shake the doppelganger until she woke up to the surprise of seeing the two she encountered last night instead of Hilda’s mother.

"I thought you were going to wait," the older woman said as she yawned. "I woke up a bit earlier than usual. How about we go about this like if things are normal?"

The doppelganger thought about the idea for a few moments and began to nod her head slightly. 

"I’m up for that. It’d be funny, but do-able."

The doppelganger slowly rose up from her waist and sat on the couch. 

"So, you got any ideas for nicknames since we’re both Hilda? We’ll just confuse each other if someone says our names."

Hilda took that thought into account, but she realized that this version of herself worked in a retail chain before she was taken here. "Retail?"

"Retail? Like with where I work and such?" the clone mentioned. "Yeah...I’m sorry, I know that sucks," Hilda replied in embarrassment, grabbing her left arm.

"No, no. It’s fine. It works. My turn: Shiftie?" Retail asked. 

"You gotta be kidding me. Seriously?"

"Hey, it’s all I got and I just woke up," Retail responded. "Besides, it makes sense since you can stretch and also grow and shrink as well. Like me," Retail mentioned as she got up and went to the kitchen. 

"Wait, what?"

"What?" Retail asked. 

"I can grow and shrink too?" Hilda asked in astonishment and Retail turned around after she got a box of Peppermint Tea mixers. 

"Yeah," Retail answered and placed the box on the kitchen counter. "Well...show me!"

"Ok," Retail answered and began to slowly shrink down to the ground while Hilda and Alfur watched. After several moments, Retail was about the same size as what Alfur used to be, standing on the ground. 

"Now don’t step on me. I’m not in the mood for that stuff."

Both Hilda and Alfur went prone on the kitchen floor and looked at Retail like if she was an elf. 

"This is quite the role reversal, isn’t it?" Alfur remarked and the two Hildas began laughing. 

"That was a good one, Alfur," Hilda laughed.

"Alright. You want to know how to do this? Just relax your mind and paint a clear image in your head. Also, stand up too," Retail suggested and Hilda then got up to do what Retail wanted. 

Hilda thought about being as tiny as Alfur and standing beside Retail. The image was about as clear as day and she closed her eyes to think better. After several moments of thinking, she opened her eyes to notice that nothing happened.

"Huh?" Hilda asked as everyone looked at her. "Nothing happened. Why is that?" 

Alfur looked back at Retail and asked. "Maybe she’s not as experienced at this as me. It’s not as simple as stretching, really. Though stretching isn’t easy, either. Look, after all of this, I could show you the ropes with it and help you when needed. Alright?"

"Um...sure. I guess," Hilda replied and then Retail began growing back to her normal size. Alfur got up as Retail brought herself back to normal. "Alright. Now I’m going to make peppermint tea and wait for Mum to show up."

Retail ended up making peppermint tea and everyone just sat down on the couch to watch whatever was on TV at the time. Hilda laid her head on Alfur’s shoulder since she was still tired while Retail stayed still and steady during the two hours they spent watching.

After the two hours, Johanna walked out of her bedroom and looked at the couch. The mother rubbed her eyes since she assumed she was seeing double vision and walked into the kitchen. 

"You up at this hour, Hilda?"

"Yeah, Mum. Bad dream," Hilda answered. 

"Yeah, bad dream," Retail chimed in. 

"Aw, that’s a shame. Hey, if you want a hug or something, I’m here."

Retail and Hilda looked at each other, knowing what’s about to happen so the two got up and walked towards the kitchen in sync. Johanna took notice and immediately stood in place while being confused. 

"Hi, Mum," both Hildas said at once.

Everyone stood in place and Johanna was astounded to see two versions of her daughter standing in front of her. This might not have been a good plan to begin with, but it was something and it had to be done.

Alfur then got up from the couch and ran over into the kitchen. 

"How about you sit down and think about this, yeah?"

Johanna nodded her head slightly and began to slowly follow Alfur to the couch in the living room while keeping an eye on Retail. The mother ended up sitting down on the couch with Alfur and she looked like she saw the grim reaper, it was quite scary to see for Hilda.

Hilda and Retail walked back into the living room and they both saw Alfur trying to comfort Johanna from the not so obvious revelation. After a few minutes, Johanna finally spoke. "....How?"

‘“The Anomaly". These two did mention that other people vanished, right?" Hilda and Alfur nodded to Retail’s question. 

"When’s Hilda’s birthday?" Johanna asked.

"September 21, 1990," Retail answered. Johanna looked at the torn up sweater and remembered the birthday gift she made for Hilda. 

"How did you get that sweater?"

"You had it custom made and gave it to me on my fifteenth birthday. We went to a Sparrow Scouts party and a Barghest attacked us. Well, the outcome was different, but it happened."

Johanna’s face became even more confused as ever and she began to take deep breaths. 

"Mum, you alright?" Hilda asked Johanna and kneeled down. Johanna began shaking her head to say “no” to Hilda and the teenager had an idea. "Ok, let’s just put you to bed to think about this."

"No! No,"Johanna yelled. "If this “Anomaly” didn’t happen, I’d be worse off," Johanna said and she then placed her face into her hands. "Fucking hell."

"Are you sure you don’t want to rest from all of this?" Hilda asked and Johanna thought about the question for a while. After several deep breaths, Johanna removed her hands from her face and ultimately agreed to Hilda’s suggestion. "Just...just give me some time to...god, I don’t know."

Johanna slowly rose from the couch and she walked back into her bedroom, closing the door and leaving everyone alone again. 

"Welp. It’s done," Retail broke the silence. 

"Yeah. It is," said Hilda.

"What do we do know?" Alfur asked and rose from the couch.

"Well, the way I see it, we have three options: We could go to the store I work at, if it’s around in 2005. I think it is. We could either work together about how these abilities work. Or I could tell you what’s going to happen next,"

"What’s going to happen next?" asked Hilda and Retail sighed. 

"So that trip you were going on is canned, right?"

"Yeah. Why are you asking?" Hilda asked once again. 

"Either today, tomorrow, or whatever day, Raven Leader will call you and tell you that the trip is rescheduled so at least some fun might happen."

"Huh. Well, then. That’s good," Hilda replied. 

"To tell you the truth, I’m interested in figuring out this stuff."

"Wise choice," Retail remarked and began walking to Hilda’s room until she stopped to notice everyone not following her. "Well...come on."


	5. Baby Steps

Chapter Five: Baby Steps

As the day went on, Retail tried to help out Hilda with her abilities. They are the same person from alternate worlds, after all, so Retail is the best option to assist Hilda. The retail chain worker began with a series of stretches with her arms that extended from the bed to the middle of the room. Retail told Hilda to “relax and don’t get stressed”, so Hilda tried it out.

Hilda used her left arm to start and she began doing the same thing Retail did: Stretch her arm out to the middle of the room and keep it steady instead of falling on the ground. The first time, it didn’t work. Which is expected, so they tried again, and again, and again, and again until Hilda finally managed to get it right. However, after a few seconds of this victory, her arm fell on the ground again. 

"No big deal. We can always try again," Retail said.

So they did, and during all of this, Twig managed to wake up and watch the two train throughout the morning. Casually talking about life on both ends of the world while doing so. There was no rush to get things done, it was just peaceful and carefree advice.

Retail had to repeat the same things to Hilda over and over again as she tried to stretch her arm out to the middle and stay up and after a few hours, she got it right. Hilda’s arm stayed up instead of falling and Hilda became proud of her accomplishment. "I DID IT!"

"Yeah, you did. Now calm down, cowgirl. That’s just the basics on arm movement," Retail mentioned. "Now, see if you can retrieve your arm back without it falling."

Hilda calmed herself and prepared to do what Retail wanted. The girl had the thought in her head along with the physicaities required and at that point, her arm began retrieving itself back into place. After several seconds, it was back to normal and Hilda examined her left arm. "Wow," Hilda said to herself. 

"Yeah. Like I said, that’s the basics of it. Now it would be cool to see if you could do the same with your legs and your other arm as well."

After Retail said this, the phone in the living room began ringing and Hilda got up from the bed, but then Retail stepped up. 

"I got it. We’re the same person so they won’t know the difference. Besides, you earned a break."

Retail left Hilda, Alfur, and Twig to their own devices to answer the phone and she entered the hallway of the apartment, seeing a phone on the wall near the kitchen. After walking for a bit, Retail picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Retail asked.

"Oh, hi, Hilda," the voice speaking from the phone was Raven Leader.

"Raven Leader?" Retail asked again. 

"Yeah. It’s me. I heard about what happened and I’m sorry. My condolences. Is this a bad time to call?"

"No, no. What do you need?" Retail asked once more. 

"Alright. Well I just came to tell you, if you want to, that the Sparrow Scouts Administration and the Ahlberg Administration have agreed to partner up to bring back the trip. You remember right?"

At that moment, Retail’s face became blank. 

"What? I...I don’t remember much. Tell me about the trip again," Retail carefully asked with a serious face.

"Well, we were going to take the kids to the Huldrawood and camp for a few days, but that attack happened and...well we had to cancel it for some time. I’m sure your mother already told you. But since we’re both partnering up to bring both Sparrow Scouts and Ahlberg students together to reconnect, we’re doing this for about a week or so."

"What day?" Retail asked. 

"I think about...Monday? Today is Saturday in case you didn’t know. You interested in going or are you...still recovering…?"

Retail didn’t know what to say at first. It was like her mind was blown at this “revelation” to her, but she managed to pull herself back to reality when Raven Leader called her by the name. 

"Yeah. I...I’m interested. Sounds...like fun."

"Great. Alright then, we’ll pick you up on Monday morning and get started from there. One more thing: I hope you’ve been doing alright."

"Yeah, I’m fine now. I think," Retail answered. 

"And I’m sorry about the party," Raven Leader sympathized. 

"Yeah. Alright, I’ll let Mum know. Bye," Retail finished and hung up the phone. Retail didn’t know what to think again so she pressed her back against the wall and slid down to the ground in shock to herself.

Once Retail was done with what seemed to be a mental breakdown, more like an internal mental breakdown, she got up and walked back into Hilda’s room with a sense of terror in her eyes. 

"Hilda?" Retail quickly asked. 

"Yeah. You alright?"

Retail begins to shake her head. 

"No...I’m not," Retail answered and she slid back on the door, lying on the ground like before and both Hilda and Alfur went over to her. 

"What’s wrong?" asked Hilda.

"Raven Leader called," Retail answered. 

"And?" Hilda asked with caution. "...The trip is happening on Monday."

"Oh...well, why are you acting like this?" Hilda, now confused, asked. "Because that bus will crash….and everyone will fucking die in it."

Both Hilda and Alfur look at each other like they witnessed a madman try to spell out the end of the world without any form of proof at all. "What?"

"How do I explain this to myself?" Retail said to herself under her breath and then takes a deep breath. 

"Alright. After I was cut out of the Barghest, I was bed bound for god knows how long. Mum got a call from Raven Leader saying the same thing to her about the trip and of course, I couldn’t go because of my body. Just like how you were like when you woke up, assuming," Retail then sighs.

"Then a few days later, I learned that the bus that took the kids on the trip fell off of a cliff and Frida and David were killed with everyone else," Retail finished.

The child and the elf had no clue how to make all of this out to themselves. It was astounding to learn all of this and with this bombshell possibly happening again, maybe it...maybe it could be stopped. 

"Can you train me?"

"Yeah, but why are you asking me that?" Retail asked. 

"You want that crash to not happen again, right? I’ll do it."

"What? No, no," Retail tried to counter, but then Hilda got in her face. "Show me what I can do and I will try. I wasn’t able to break my arm one night when I rolled over it so maybe I’m unbreakable as well," Hilda counterargued. 

"You are right about that."

Hilda then got out of Retail’s face. 

"Hilda, you can’t be serious," Alfur joined in and Hilda turned to him. "I’m not going to let my friends die, so I’m going no matter what. I’ll even try to stop the trip from happening!"

Retail then found herself back on her feet along with others. 

"Look, maybe I could come along with you," Retail suggested. 

"No. You saw how Mum was like. Imagine that with everyone else," Hilda combated. "Well, with “The Anomaly” being a thing, a second Hilda is possible, so it might not be so bad," Alfur remarked. 

"Still, I don’t want to deal with that. People that know me will probably lose their minds."

"Yeah. I should’ve thought of that when I suggested going to the store I work at," Retail added. "Alright. Are you sure you want to do this? Like, I could trade places with you and do this by myself."

"No. You’re older and your clothes are a mess," Hilda countered again. 

"Yeah, I am 19 after all."

"Look. Even if I was to show you everything in two days, it’ll still take time for you to get used to it. I’ll help so nobody dies in the end, but there’s a chance that it could go to hell anyway," Retail said. 

"I’ll do it. Just show me what to do."

Retail looked at Hilda with uncertainty, but she knew that if she was going to do something, she was going to do it no matter what, so saying “no” would be pointless. The 19 year old began slightly nodding her head and afterwards, she looked at Hilda. "Okay."

The adult version of Hilda ended up training Hilda all day with repeating the same process from earlier with Hilda’s other limbs. They repeated and repeated the process every time Hilda failed, but the 15 year old Hilda was determined to learn about her remade body, so she kept going, no matter how much she failed.

Hours and hours spent, all day on, not only learning to stretch her arms out, but also using her hands and feet without losing connections with the legs or arms. With more failures than the amount of kids who failed math tests, Hilda still kept going on with her trials. 

Stretching out her limbs and trying to keep a mental connection with them strong as she does it. Meanwhile, with a test of trying to grab stuff while her arms are stretched such as trying to pick up Twig with both of her arms and bring him to her.

Of course, there were failures and after all of those failures, Retail taught Hilda to use her limbs without them falling on her randomly or causing her to fall on her face when running.

After the many grueling hours, Hilda was able to stretch her arms at will without failure, grab stuff while her arms were stretched, extend her legs, and do what Retail could do. Well, not to perfection, but she was getting there. Once they were done for the day, they realized that it was nighttime.

"So how do you feel after all of that?" Retail asked and Hilda looked at her as if she just ran a mile. 

"I feel great, actually," Hilda answered.

"Good. I’ve been bored just watching all of this after for so long," Alfur commented while resting on the bed. 

"Hungry?" Retail asked her younger self. 

"Starving. Um..let’s see what Mum is doing, yeah?"

"Sounds good," Retail finished. 

"Alfur, you get some sleep," Hilda said, and Alfur prepared himself for sleep by getting under the blanket. "Goodnight, Hilda."

At that moment when Hilda heard Alfur’s last words for the day, she walked up and hugged the elf. Eventually, the two separated and went their separate ways with Twig following the girls.

Hilda, Retail, and Twig walked into the living room and they all saw Johanna sitting down on the couch watching a typical drama show on the TV. The living room was dark and the only thing really visible was the couch, Johanna, and the TV.

"Mum?" The mother of the 15 year old turned around after hearing her voice and then noticed the older version of Hilda with an unoptimistic look on her face.

"You alright, Mum?"

"Yeah. I’m fine," Johanna answered, and then turned back around. 

"I’ll go and make us sandwiches. You go talk to her," said Retail and she went off into the kitchen to prepare the typical cucumber sandwiches while Hilda sat down with Johanna. 

"Mum?"

Johanna looked at Hilda for a moment and she decided to hug her daughter. 

"I’m sorry for earlier," Johanna spoke again. 

"It’s fine. I’m weirded out too," said Hilda.

"It’s hard to believe that this thing managed to create nightmares for reality, but...the last thing I expected was to see a clone of my daughter," Johanna explained.

"Yeah," said Hilda. 

"And what if she can’t go home? I don’t even know if there is a way to send people from...different...worlds, back home."

"I don’t know either," Hilda replied. 

"I’ll be alright, sweetie. Trust me. I noticed that she’s making sandwiches right now, so I guess you could look after her while I think of something. Ok?"

"Sure," Hilda agreed, and the two separated from their hug. Hilda ultimately got up from the couch, left Johanna in peace, and went into the kitchen to see Retail preparing two cucumber sandwiches.

"You know how to make those?" Hilda asked while looking at the amazing display of meal preparement. "Yeah. Mum taught me when I was 17 so if I moved out, I won’t forget."

"That’s good. Hey...um...how will you ever get home?" Hilda carefully asked and then Retail stopped moving. "To be honest with you, Shiftie, I don’t know. I really don’t know."

Hilda stood in silence while Retail continued to prepare the meal and after a few moments, it was ready. The 19 year old expert turned around and saw a depressed Hilda. 

"Look," Retail said and slowly walked up to Hilda. "No matter how dark a tunnel is, there’s always a light to find," Retail finished and handed over one of the sandwiches to Hilda.

Hilda began nodding her head to the philosophical suggestion and looked back at her clone companion. "Yeah, you’re right about that. Maybe once this…"

Hilda slowly turned her head at Johanna and then turned back. "...This “situation”, I’ll say, maybe we could figure out something. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Retail answered. "For now, let’s eat, sleep, and work on size shifting tomorrow," Retail added. 

"Lead the way."

The two and the deerfox ended up going back into Hilda’s bedroom. Instead of sitting on the bed and waking up Alfur, they decided to sit down on the floor together while they ate the sandwiches and Twig went to sleep with Alfur.

"So, you mentioned size shifting?" Hilda began after swallowing part of the sandwich. 

"Yeah. Remember what I did earlier with shrinking down? That’s size shifting."

Hilda took another bite of the sandwich. 

"I’ll explain everything about it again tomorrow, but it’s like with the limbs. Though this time, it’s your entire body going from tiny to enormous."

"Right," Hilda replied while chewing the sandwich, now being mostly eaten. Same situation with Retail as well. 

"You’re not taking this seriously, aren't you?"

"No, I am. Trust me. Just, you made this and it’s great, and I’m tired, so that also adds to me looking like I’m not paying attention."

"True. I am, too, quite frankly," Retail agreed and the two continued to enjoy the meal together until it was all gone. 

"Alright. Hey...um...I have a question?"

"Shoot," said Retail.

"How did you know about...the crash?" At that moment, Retail took a deep breath. 

"If it’s too much, don’t worry about it."

"No, no. It’s fine. God, I’m trying to remember something I locked away for years. Great. Ok. I woke up in my bed and I still felt like hell. Alfur was there to calm me and help out, but it wasn’t enough for me to...be more like what I am now."

"I entered the living room with an overly long arm on the ground and I learned that my best friends were killed on the telly. Everyone I knew, aside from Alfur and Mum, were just...poof. Gone."

After explaining, Retail began to form hidden emotions. Emotions that would lead to a traumatic breakdown, but before any tears could be shed, Hilda crawled over and lended Retail a hug. The two hugged each other for an extended period of time until Retail finally calmed herself from having a breakdown and pushed herself away from Hilda. 

"To be honest, I don’t even know if you can do this even with me showing you the ropes."

"You’re probably right, but I’m going to try. Adventurers never give up," Hilda said and then Retail looked at her with a confused face, but then scoffed. 

"I guess you’re right about that too. Though I became a total fuck up after all that."

"No, you didn’t," Hilda tried to reassure Retail. 

"Yeah, I did. Don’t make assumptions about me, alright?" Retail said in a more hostile tone.

Hilda then backed off. 

"Alright. Sorry,’ Hilda said. 

"It’s fine. Hey, let’s just get some sleep and we’ll work out this shifting stuff."

"Sounds good," Hilda said and then got up. 

"Hey, wait," Retail interrupted and Hilda stopped, looking down at Retail. 

"No, forget it."

"What? What is it?" Hilda asked and then kneeled next to Retail. "Before Monday, I...I want to...I want to see David and Frida."

"I thought you said-" Hilda spoke, but was then interrupted. 

"I know what I said. I don’t know. I just want to see them in case if this goes wrong, alright? I know they’re not the same, but...I just need to see them."

"Alright, but how would we get there without any eyes on us?" Hilda asked. 

"We could go at night. Not right now, it’s too late. But before midnight."

"Sure. We could just knock on David and Frida’s windows and get their attention that way," Hilda suggested, and Retail agreed. Afterward, Hilda offered Retail a hand to pull her up and she accepted the help. 

Once Retail was on her feet, Hilda had her arm slightly stretched out from the force Retail used to pull herself up. 

"You think you can retrieve that back?" Retail wondered and Hilda simply made her arm normal without any problems. 

"Yep."

"Impressive," said Retail, and she went off to sleep in Hilda’s bed next to Alfur. 

"Hey," Hilda said and Retail stopped moving.

"What?"

"That’s my bed, you know,"Hilda explained and Retail’s memory of not being in her world came back to her. "Right. Sorry. I’ll sleep on the floor, I guess."

"No, if you can size shift, you can just lay on my pillow and things will be fine," Hilda suggested and suddenly, Retail felt like she had a light bulb turn on in her head. 

"Oh, yeah. That works too. I’m not thinking straight at all right now."

"It’s fine, just jump in with me and Alfur and things will be fine," said Hilda, and she then climbed over Alfur, then laying down beside him as always with the blanket over her afterward.

Retail then began shrinking down to where Hilda couldn’t see her at all anymore from where she was. After several moments, Hilda wondered where Retail was until she spotted her as she pulled herself onto the pillow, seeing that Retail was as small as what Alfur was before.

The tiny and older version of Hilda just laid down on the top middle of the pillow. Enough space for herself, Hilda, and Alfur to sleep. To Retail’s surprise, Hilda didn’t lay her head on the pillow. Instead, she placed her head on Alfur’s chest while hugging the elf like she always did.

So Retail decided to get up and run over to the middle right side of the pillow and sleep there while Hilda was letting her mind pull her in for the night. After laying down, Retail closed her eyes and slowly let her mind take over as well. Even if the ceiling light was still on since they turned it on when the night was setting in, nobody cared anymore. All they wanted was sleep and they got it.

When everyone woke up in the morning, the two girls got to work on size shifting abilities immediately. Even if Hilda was tired, Retail managed to keep Hilda interested in both telling and showing what size shifting is. Just like with the limbs, it’s a matter of clear thinking and mental control so they repeated the same steps again and again. 

Throughout many hours, size shifting proved to be more of a challenge for Hilda. It wasn’t as simple as moving your arms around, no. It was changing your entire body and keeping that shape for as long as you want. Hilda did remember that when she woke up in the hospital so it’s possible for her to do it which gave her that motivation to size shift, but this lesson of superpower class had more failures than your average high school drop out.

Retail kept telling Hilda to focus, but she never seemed to be able to do this unlike with her limbs. After so many hours, along with Alfur leaving the room to help Johanna, Hilda started to feel stressed and sick at her stomach from doing the same thing for several hours. 

"Retail, I feel awful."

"Come on. Let’s give it a few more tries and then if it doesn’t work then who knows what we’ll do when the crash happens," Retail stated. 

"Well, alright. I can do it. I’ll try."

Retail told Hilda to focus and have a clear goal in her mind. That goal being to shrink down to the size of an elf, so that’s what Hilda tried to do. Failure, failure, failure, and failure. Nothing. Just nothing. Not even trying to grow big didn’t help either, because nothing happened. 

"Alright, alright, alright. Just relax."

"Relax? What about the crash? I have to be prepared!" Hilda retorted. "Well, you know how to use your arms, yeah? That’s more useful than size shifting. Besides, the bus went over a dirt cliff that broke apart due to the bus’ weight. If you try to turn big and pick it up, you’ll just fall down with it and probably crush it if you fall on it."

"Your weight increases when you grow?" Hilda asked. 

"Obviously,"Retail answered. "Look, Shiftie. If you can use your arms then you’re good. If you were in the opposite situation here then I would be pissed. But I’m not."

Hilda then lowered her guard and then sat down on the bed next to Twig, who woke up hours ago and watched. 

"It’s the afternoon now. So what do you want to do?"

"Wait. Shiftie, I got an idea," Retail mentioned. 

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I can size shift and you can't, right? What if I shrink down into one of the pockets of the sweater you got around and just hide in there until the crash happens?"

"Holy…" Hilda said and then got up in astonishment. "You just blew my mind," Hilda finished.

"I should’ve thought of this sooner, but it works. Honestly, who cares if people on the bus see me? It’s either freak out over all of this or die."

"With you being small and being in my pocket most of the time, that could work," Hilda replied. 

"Oh, trust me, it will work. It will. I think you put your sweater in the washer, but you never dried it, so I suggest doing that."

"Right," Hilda said and began walking to the door until she realized something came back to her mind. The thought of Alfur’s letter to send. "Hey..um," Hilda began.

"What?" asked Retail.

"Since you can control your size and such, can you help out Alfur with writing a letter? A report or something to the colony back at home to see if they’re alright?"

"The colony from back home where he came from? Oh god, ok," Retail began and looked around in shame.

"What? What is it?"

"Hilda...remember when I said I traveled through a field to get here?" 

Retail asked and Hilda’s curiosity picked up. 

"Yeah…"

"I walked by the house, and… that colony is fucked. I’ve seen things that only the devil himself could create. They were either mutilated or gone."

Hilda’s face turned to both heartbreak and confusion. She didn’t know what to do at first other than stand in place, but she then backed up against the door and slid down to the ground with her hands on her head. "I’m sorry."

Again, Hilda didn’t know what to do other than slowly break herself down into tiny tears for herself and Alfur. Retail didn’t know what to do either other than just watch her companion sob to herself. 

"What are we going to tell him?! Like... are you sure that was the colony?!"

"Yes. Yes it was. I’ve seen bodies of tall ones, too, mutilated by “The Anomaly” as well," Retail explained to Hilda’s horror. The teenager just broke down sobbing and Retail ultimately had to comfort Hilda before things got worse so she sat down next to her and hugged the girl.

The two sat down together for what seemed to be like an hour of trying to calm Hilda, but she did come back to her senses and the two got up from the ground while Hilda wiped away her tears. 

"What are we going to tell him? I can’t, Retail. I just can’t tell him this," Hilda said and she tightly hugged Retail.

"Don’t worry about it. I’ll do it. Look, get some rest and I’ll take care of the laundry, too," Retail suggested and Hilda nodded her head. The two girls went their separate ways as Hilda went into the bed and placed the blanket over her entire body with Twig cuddling next to her while Retail went into the living room to do laundry.

The 19 year old looked into the washer and found all the clothes in a spiral like fashion so she opened the dryer, took out the clothes in the washer, and placed them in the dryer. Once they were all in the dryer, Retail turned the left dial on the top to “Very Dry” and clicked the start button.

"Hey...Hilda," a voice came from behind Retail and she turned around to see Johanna.

"Hey...Mum," Retail answered. "Don’t….ah...I don’t know anymore."

"Anything wrong?" Retail asked with caution.

"No. Nothing. I just want to tell you something. Alfur told me you were able to help out Hilda and I thank you for that, but I just don’t know how to feel about my daughter’s doppelganger being...here. Living here, and such...I...I don’t know."

"It’s fine. If that’s the case, then I’ll look around for work and when I’m able to, I’ll get a place of my own," Retail replied. 

"Fair enough. Plus, we’ll have to find new clothes for you, like what we did for Alfur," Johanna said and then looked at the door, sighing afterward. "Look...Johanna, I’m sorry for any harm or anything I’ve done to you."

"Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. The only reason why I’m not having a mental breakdown and screaming is the fact that you are Hilda from...another world, and this “Anomaly” happened, so I’m inclined to believe that you’re what you say you are. You’re helping out Hilda with her body, so that’s also another reason why I’m not yelling."

"Alright," Retail finished. 

"That’s all I wanted to say. Like I said, don’t worry about it and we’ll help you out."

After Johanna left and entered her bedroom while the dryer was making the rounds, Retail noticed Alfur on the couch watching TV so she walked away from the laundry closet to join the elf by sitting next to him.

Alfur then took notice. ‘Oh hey, Hilda….or Retail," Alfur began. 

"Hey. How are you doing?"

"I’m alright. Had a great night of sleep. Yeah, that was great,"Alfur mentioned. 

"I need to talk to you. Have you tried to make any more letters or reports lately?"

"No. I haven’t. I just decided, why not wait for someone for the colony to show up and talk to me about the situation I’m in?" Alfur answered and Retail’s face became more depressed as the elf spoke, with him noticing. 

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You remember when I said I traveled through fields to get here?" Retail asked and Alfur nodded his head. 

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I found the old house and the colony," Retail answered, and Alfur became excited. 

"Really? Are they alright? Is someone preparing to go talk to me or something?"

"No. I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a prick, but they’re gone. All of them. Either vanished or mutilated. I didn’t see anybody there alive or well," Retail answered and then Alfur’s face turned blank.

Alfur had no idea what to feel other than emptiness and Retail realized that she made a mistake. The elf slightly turned his head for a moment and he then slowly got up from the couch, walking towards the bathroom of the apartment.

Retail got up from the couch and tried to follow Alfur, but the elf became quick in his movements and before Retail knew it, Alfur went into the bathroom and locked himself inside. Retail knocked on the door, but never got a response. Only hearing faint sobs.

"Alfur?" Retail asked while putting her ear to the door.

"I knew something had happened! I KNEW IT!"

Retail stood in silence as Alfur sobbed his way through his breakdown. 

"I am such an idiot," the elf said to himself. 

"No, you’re not. Look. Don’t blame yourself for this, alright?"

"I know...I’m...I’m sorry. I guess there really is no reason for me to write at all anymore for them since THEY’RE ALL DEAD!"

Silence stood its ground for a few minutes and then Johanna entered the hallway to ask Retail what’s going on. Retail told Johanna everything about Alfur’s colony and it all clicked with her. 

"Alfur. Unlock the door, please," Johanna asked. 

Nothing came about for several minutes. Alfur did ask to have some time to himself and that he was fine, he just needed to let his emotions out so the two agreed to leave him alone until he wanted to leave. Both Retail and Johanna sat down against the wall of the door. Retail on left and Johanna on right, waiting for Alfur to open the door.

After what seemed to be an hour, the two heard the door unlock and they got up as fast as they could. The door opened and they saw a pale, more than usual, version of Alfur. He was completely broken up and needed someone to help him.

The elf slowly walked over and hugged Johanna, burying his face in Johanna’s shoulder as Retail watched. Alfur just cried in Johanna’s shoulder for several moments, slightly sobbing at some bits and after a while, the Elf calmed himself down and looked around him.

"I think I need a shower," said Alfur, and he then separated from Johanna, beginning to walk back into the bathroom. 

"You know how to?" Johanna asked. 

"Yeah, I do. It’ll come back to me. Same with doors," Alfur answered and he then closed the door, locking it again. Johanna then took a deep sigh while looking at the door. 

"I guess I’ll go and get Alfur his second set of clothes," said Johanna, and she walked into her bedroom, leaving Retail alone.

Retail ended up going back into Hilda’s bedroom to see an outline of the younger version of herself under the blanket along with Twig in there as well. The older version of Hilda walked over to the bed and sat down near the bottom left end of it with a shred of remorse. 

"You alright?"

"No," Hilda answered, and Retail then sighed at what she had done to everyone. It had to be done, but it was still an awful thing to learn. "I’m glad you told me, but it’s awful. Does Alfur know?"

"Yes. I told him and he’s now taking a shower," Retail answered and Hilda then poked her head out of the blanket. 

"Wait, Alfur doesn’t know how to take a shower."

"Don’t. Don’t worry about it. Johanna is helping him out so relax," Retail said to calm Hilda and the girl then placed herself back under the blanket after several moments. 

"Alright."

"Is he ok?" Hilda asked calmly. "Yeah. I think so. Hopefully the shower calms him down, but give him some space for a while. Yeah?"

"Sure," Hilda answered. 

"Also, I put your clothes in the dryer so your sweater will be clean soon,’ Retail added. 

"Thank you."

"Hey, Retail, if you want to join me and Twig, go ahead," Hilda finished and Retail took the offer by getting under the blanket, seeing both Hilda and Twig. 

"I guess we could both sleep and then go to Frida and David at night, when Johanna is asleep?"

"Yeah. Sounds good," Hilda answered with a sad face and after a few moments, Hilda scooted over to Retail and hugged her. 

"Actually, I’ll stay up and wake you up later."

Hilda nodded to Retail’s suggestion and the two stayed together for several minutes. Once the silence took over, Hilda went to sleep along with Twig and Retail separated from her.

Retail got up from the bed, left the room, and decided to watch TV for the rest of the day while everyone tried to relax from the news Retail gave. Soon after, Alfur got out of the shower and got himself in the same set of clothes from before, just the second set of them. Same flannel and black pants.

The day just went by mostly silent. Alfur did join Retail for the TV binge, Johanna managed to join them later on throughout the day watching dramas and comedies while Hilda slept. Retail even told Johanna about the trip tomorrow and she was happy to know that everyone would be getting together and had no problem with Hilda going. Then the night came along, and Johanna told everyone that she was going to sleep. Once Johanna left the living room, Retail managed to bring Alfur into the bedroom and explained the plan to him.

"So you and Hilda plan to go and meet Frida and David?" Alfur asked. 

"Yep. I just want to see them again and possibly tell them what’s going on tomorrow."

"Retail, I don’t know about this," Alfur tried to combat the plan, but then Retail rejected it. 

"It’s night. Barely anyone is out and I got an idea on how to get there."

"How?" Alfur asked.

"Ever heard of parkour? I do it all the time at night back at home and it’ll help out Hilda with her limbs," Retail answered. "Who knows? Maybe we can convince them to stay at home," Retail added.

"I guess that makes sense. Though you could’ve told Johanna about it and she would have driven you there."

"She would keep Hilda at home and everyone would be dead," said Retail. 

"Yeah," Alfur replied, and then Retail walked over to the bed, waking up Hilda.

"It’s time," said Retail, and soon after, Hilda got up from the bed. "Sweater?" Hilda asked, and Retail was reminded of earlier. 

"Right. I’ll go and get that."

Retail then left the room to go and get Hilda’s sweater, white shirt, and black pants. Hilda and Alfur just stood around trying to figure out what to say. 

"So she told you everything?"

"Yeah," Alfur answered. 

"Alfur, I am so sorry about the colony."

"Don’t be. Life throws curve balls and we move on. Simple as that," he answered and Hilda’s face became surprised at how calm Alfur was when talking about this.

"You’re not...upset at all?" Hilda curiously asked. 

"I am. I’m just taking everything in slowly, I guess. I don’t know. It’s a weird feeling to not feel anything after such an event. You know what that’s like?"

"No. I don’t think so," Hilda answered. 

"It’s a hole. A dark and desolate hole that is just nothing. Stuck at your chest forever, I believe. Right now, I don’t really feel anything."

After Alfur explained his current emotions, Retail walked back into the room with Hilda’s clothes from previous days. 

"Here. All clean," Retail mentioned and handed over the clothes to Hilda. 

"Thanks," she said, and walked off into the bathroom to go change.

"So Retail, what’s the plan for tomorrow?" Alfur began. 

"Well, I’m going to shrink down into one of Shiftie’s sweater pockets and hide in there until the crash happens."

"Sounds simple enough. I guess," Alfur replied and after a bit of silence, Hilda entered the room looking like how she was on her birthday. "Ready?" Retail asked. 

Always," Hilda answered.

Retail then climbed onto the bed and opened the window to the outside fire escape, then she climbed out with Hilda following her. 

"Hey, Hilda," Alfur started and the girls stopped moving. "Please be careful," Alfur added.

"I’ll try," Hilda answered, and Alfur then closed the window. 

"Alright, Shiftie. You know parkour?"

"Parkour?" Hilda asked with a smirky smile on her face. 

"Yeah. Parkour, but with our limbs. I’ll show you." After Retail said this, she extended her left arm so far above into the sky and grabbed the edge of the apartment building’s roof. The woman even offered her right hand to Hilda. 

"Come on. Let me show you a new way of travel."

Hilda took Retail’s hand and they both ascended past the fire escape and soon after, Retail was hanging onto the edge of the rooftop with Hilda in her other hand. 

"Alright, pull yourself up."

Hilda then used her right arm to reach the rooftop and then grabbed the edge a few spaces to the right of Retail. The teenager decided to let go of Retail’s grip and the only thing that kept her from falling was her extended right arm. So Hilda didn’t stop there and extended her left arm to grab the rooftop, pulling herself up the side of the building like if she held a rope until she climbed onto the rooftop with Retail following her. 

"Well done," Retail praised.

"All thanks to you," Hilda added, and the two girls looked out to see mostly a city in darkness. Sure, there were lights among the dark, but it looked like a sea of blue dead buildings. 

"Hopefully the power gets fixed up soon."

"Yeah. It sucks not having power. It’s November now, right?" Retail asked. 

"I think so," Hilda answered to Retail’s non-surprising expression. "Yeah, they’re going to need to fix that before Winter shows up."

"True. Now….you know where Frida and David are, right?" Retail asked. 

"Obviously. Just follow me." 

After Hilda responded, she began running towards the edge of the building to Retail’s surprise and prepared herself to jump off the building and land on the building next to it which was the same height and had a big antenna on it. 

"HEY! WAIT!"

Before Retail could do anything, Hilda jumped over to the other side. Hilda didn’t make it, however. She instead slipped on the edge and landed on her stomach, allowing gravity to pull her down to the ground. Retail began running for her life to catch Hilda. Retail ended up going prone on the edge of the building as Hilda was falling down to the ground and she extended her right arm as fast as she could until Retail grabbed Hilda by the right arm. By that moment, Hilda’s movement towards the ground stopped completely.

"I got you," said Retail. 

"How about you let me do the jumping and show you what to do right?" she added while retrieving her arm which pulled Hilda up.

"Alright!"

Retail managed to pull Hilda back up and the girl regained her footing. 

"Ok. Yeah, that was reckless."

"It was. Watch,"Retail ordered and she backed up several feet before running like how Hilda did it, but instead of attempting to make a leap of faith, Retail extended her left arm, grabbed the antenna, and pulled herself with extra momentum as she jumped. In the end, Retail made it across without a scratch.

"Alright. Either grab the antenna or do what you did and I’ll grab you."

So, Hilda, after thinking about what to do, decided to grab the antenna with her now extended left arm, began running, and did the exact same thing but she pulled to gain momentum too late, ending up just using her arm more like a rope instead and landing her body on the side of the building’s wall. 

"You alright?"

"I’m fine. I’ll just use my arm as a rope," Hilda answered. 

"Sounds good."

Hilda did exactly that. Using her arm to pull herself up the building as if she was using a rope to climb with. After climbing for a while, Hilda made it up to the roof and Retail helped her onto her feet. 

"Ok. We’ll have to work on that. Now when you jump, immediately pull yourself so momentum will go straight. Remember that. Even if it’s not much, it’s worth it."

"Alright," Hilda replied, and the two then traveled across multiple buildings throughout the night while Hilda pointed in the right direction towards David’s house first. The two kept traveling, despite Hilda having errors during certain jumps, but they didn’t stop. They looked after each other and as Retail showed Hilda how she would get around from building to building, Hilda got better at her “grapple” ability and she was then nearly as good as Retail just before they arrived at David’s. Not perfect like Retail, but good.

The two made it on top of David’s house rooftop and they gave each other a high five. 

"Alright. How are we getting David’s attention?"

"I got an idea," Retail answered, and she then walked over to the edge of the front, grabbed the edge with her left arm and rappelled down the wall until she saw David’s window. Thankfully David was awake since there was a light coming from inside his room so Retail knocked on the window to get the teenager’s attention.

A bit of waiting passed by and the window opened to show David. Of course, Retail was surprised by his appearance since he had normal eyes. "Oh. Hi, Hilda. Say, why is your hair pink?"

"I’m not your Hilda. Look up," Retail said, and then swung herself into David’s room. David didn’t understand what Retail meant at first, but when he looked out his window and looked up, his brain clicked when he saw Hilda looking down from the roof. 

"Hey, David."

David didn’t know what to make of the situation he was now in. He looked back in the room and saw Retail just standing there. Before he knew it, Hilda rappelled down and jumped into the window. 

"Hi," Hilda began. 

"Now I’m starting to question if I’m high," David said. 

"No, you’re not," Retail answered.

"Ok….start explaining," said David. The two girls ended up explaining everything to David and by the end of it, he was mind blown. "Woah. Ok, that was a lot. And the bus is going to crash?!"

"Yeah. I saw it on the telly when I was 15. The news was all over it and I was alone in class for years," Retail answered. "I...I can’t cancel going. Like, it’s already night, Mum and Dad already got me ready for it, and ah, god…"

"I know, David. We’re going to help," said Hilda. 

"How?!"

"We’ll have to improvise during it. We can’t just pop a tire. They’ll just go out, get someone, and be back on the road with no problems. I’m sure they can replace a bus if we break the engine too."

"That’s great! That’s fucking great," said David, and the boy began to have a panic attack similar to what happened at the party. Hilda walked up to him, hugged him, and they both sat down together on the bed as Retail watched.

"David, you know busses have emergency exits on the back, right?"

"Yeah," said David while trying to calm himself. 

"You sit in the back and when things go wrong, you open the door and jump out," Hilda ordered and David nodded his head.

"And what if the bus goes over back first?" David asked. 

"It won’t. It went over front first. It was all over the news where I was. It all said the same thing," Retail answered.

After a few subtle nods, David ended up agreeing to the plan. 

"Alright. Shiftie, you ready to meet Frida?"

"Yep. Let’s go," Hilda said, and then she went out the window, extending her arm like a grapple hook and pulling herself up to the roof. 

"Also, David. One more thing," Retail mentioned and she then tightly hugged David. 

"I know you’re not the same, but it’s good to see you again."

"I guess so," David finished, and eventually the two separated. Retail said her goodbyes and joined Hilda on the rooftop. 

"What took you so long?"

"I had to give David a hug. I haven’t been able to do that for...god knows how long," Retail answered. "Oh. Right. Also, I always wondered how part of your hair got pink. Tell me."

"Slurpee machine. I don’t want to talk about it," Retail answered. The two traveled across the city once again from the rooftops with Hilda telling Retail where to go. Jumping across rooftops with occasional failures and Retail saving Hilda from the fall each and every time.

Eventually, the two ended up on top of Frida’s place just like David’s. "Same plan as last time, yeah?" 

Hilda nodded her head and the two prepared themselves to scale down the wall like if they were rappelling down a mountain. Only this time though, they didn’t see a light coming from Frida’s room at all, in fact, she was asleep. 

"Shit," Retail said to herself.

"What?" Hilda asked. 

"Frida is asleep. I wish Johanna went to sleep earlier," Retail answered. 

"Well we got David, yeah? That’s good enough."

"You’re right. At least we got him and he’ll be prepared for anything. I guess it’s best to get some sleep now and prepare for hell to rain down on us."

"Alright," Hilda finished and the two pulled themselves back on the roof, ready to go back home. 

"One last thing. Remember when I fought a shoplifter? Or at least mentioned that?"

"Yeah," Hilda answered. 

"Well, with your abilities now, you can beat people up with them if they try to harm you. It’s pretty easy," Retail explained. 

"Alright. Thanks… I guess."

"No problem. Now, let’s get home," Retail finished and off the two went on a journey of backtracking.

The two eventually made it back home and as they looked through the window while on the fire escape, they saw Alfur sleeping with Twig in the darkness beside the window until Hilda knocked on it which woke them both up.

Alfur let the girls back into the house and they were exhausted. 

"So how did your trip go?" 

"Fine enough. Frida was asleep so we couldn’t get her," Retail explained as Hilda was getting into bed without even putting on PJs.

"You talked to David, right?"

"Yeah, Alfur. We did," Retail answered.

"You ready to get some sleep?" Retail added.

"Sure. Let me get in with Hilda and we’ll figure out what to do with you," Alfur answered and he then got into bed with Hilda. Of course, like always, Hilda rested her head on Alfur’s chest and hugged him while Twig slept on Alfur’s belly.

Retail did the exact same thing she did the other night. The woman shrunk down, climbed up the bed, and rested on the far right side of the bed on the pillow. Soon after, everyone was asleep and it was time to see what disaster awaits.


	6. The Bus

Chapter 6: The Bus

"Hilda, wake up!" Hilda woke up to the shining lights to the yellow hues from outside along with Alfur and Retail waking up as well to see Johanna. "There’s a bus outside waiting for you."

As soon as Johanna mentioned this, Hilda got up from the bed. Climbing over Alfur and getting on her feet soon after. The girl then reached out her hand and waited for the tiny doppelganger to jump up onto it.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Retail. She’s coming with me. Hidden, of course," Hilda answered and then Retail jumped on Hilda’s hand. 

"Yep," Retail added. Johanna stood in place staring at the tiny version of Hilda for a moment before Hilda placed Retail in her sweater pocket. 

"Just...um...just make sure nobody sees her."

"I’ll try. Love you, Mum!" Hilda finished her commentary to Johanna and ran out of the room. Since Hilda was already dressed along with Retail, there was no point in wasting time getting ready. It was time to prevent a disaster.

Hilda ran outside and she saw a bus that looked like it could cover a street block. There were more than twenty windows on the bus along with tons of kids thanks to both Ahlberg and Sparrow Scouts working together on this trip.

So instead of looking at awe from the sight of the bus, Hilda got on the bus to see all sorts of colors. Two factions working together to bring joy to what has been a nightmarish remake of the world for many. Kids had their Ahlberg uniforms on, some wore their Sparrow Scouts uniform, and some didn’t wear a uniform at all to instead wear their normal clothing.

As Hilda walked through the isles of the bus, each of the kids said their hellos to her along with Trevor. Just like Trevor, many of the kids have suffered the effects of “The Anomaly” such as loss in limbs or in the worst case, being a mangled corpse or just vanishing. The only ones that Hilda managed to see were Trevor’s right leg being gone along with others who lost either an arm or a leg.

Eventually, Hilda found both Frida and David sitting in the back so all three of them sat together. 

“Hey, Hilda.”

“Hi, Frida,” Hilda said. The bus began to drive down the road towards the direction of the Huldrawood.

The trip was a smooth ride through the city. Kids were cheering and having fun, Hilda and company were enjoying themselves while Hilda kept the truth hidden to not cause a panic, and seeing the beautiful sights from the skies such as the enormous Woffs. Some of the kids on the bus ended up calling them “Super Woffs.”

The bus eventually made it to the Huldrawood, where a small crew there showed up to open the gates. Of course, the busted wall from the Barghest attack was still there, along with its debris. Once the bus drove through the gates, the crew was in the Huldrawood.

They all drove on the dirt paved road while the kids looked at the beauty of the city’s forest. “Hey, Frida. You think there’s any Marra through there?”

“No. I’ve heard that they lost their powers when “The Anomaly” hit,” Frida answered. 

“Wait, seriously? No more Marra? I guess a good thing has come from all this,” Hilda said.

“Yep,” Frida finished as the bus continued to drive through the forest.

The bus kept going through the sights of massive trees and the green and yellow hues for what seemed to be like miles and miles as the kids kept hanging out together. An hour went by and the crew had reached what seemed to be part of the forest of the right side and part of a cliff on the left. The sight from what the kids saw at the bottom were simply rocks and a few small patches of water, probably from rain from days when Hilda was out.

As soon as Hilda found out where she was, she was beginning to notice that the front top left end of the bus was starting to sway downward to the left and then the bus came to a hard stop which caused many of the kids to fall over or hit their heads on the seats.

“What happened?” Retail asked while still in Hilda’s sweater pocket. 

“I don’t know, Hilda,” Frida answered. 

“That wasn’t me, Frida.”

“What do you mean?” Frida asked while the bus’ front left was beginning to sway to the left slightly more. Hilda reached in her pocket carefully, pulling out Retail afterward to show Frida and David.

“What the fuck?” Frida exclaimed when she saw the tiny version of Hilda. 

“I’ll explain everything later, just tell me what just happened,” Retail ordered. 

“The bus just stopped and I...I noticed that it’s beginning to sway in the front end,” Hilda said.

“Put me on the ground right now!” Retail screamed, and after she said this, everyone heard what seemed to be dirt breaking apart from the front left end of the bus, causing the sway to be a full on pull towards the cliff and everyone began to panic.

David immediately got up without even caring about the fact of him squishing both Frida and Hilda just so he could open the backdoor, but the problem with that was the backdoor’s handle was rusted and would barely budge at all.

Afterwards, Hilda placed Retail on the ground and she quickly grew back to normal size to help out David. “What’s wrong?”

“The door. The handle is rusted!” David yelled out and Retail began to help out with trying to lift the handle upward so the door can be opened. However, the handle wouldn’t budge at all anymore, and then the bus received another pull towards the edge which sent a bunch of kids on the ground along with David. 

“Fuck it!” Retail yelled, and she began to enlarge her hand and punched the door completely off of its hinges, with the result being bits of glass in Retail’s hand and knuckles after she shrunk her hand back to normal.

Retail didn’t care about the new injury. What was more important to her was getting everyone out alive.

Meanwhile, Hilda got up and told the kids to run and jump out of the backdoor to escape and then what seemed to be a horde of kids began running towards the back. Some escaped, but a problem began to rise: The bus was beginning to tip over the edge front first so in response, Hilda decided to extend her left arm all the way out of the bus and grab a big tree to hold onto it with her life.

“You got it?” Retail asked while helping out many kids. 

“I got it!” Hilda yelled out, and then decided to get on the ground to the side and grab one of the metal bars holding up one of the seats.

By that point, with Hilda holding the bus together, instead of it falling off, the bus then moved over to the left and dragged itself across the cliff’s wall. Now with the bus being on a vertical position, some of the kids lost their balance and began to fall towards the driver’s window until either many of them grabbed the seats, or were saved by Retail.

Yet, some of them didn’t make it to either solutions and a few actually landed on the front window, resulting in the window cracking right away. David joined them as well. Now Retail, Hilda, and Frida were the only ones either beside the door or a few feet behind, like Hilda who had now just wrapped her leg around one of the back seat’s metal rods to keep herself from falling over.

“I’m going down there to help out. I’ll bring them back up so they can climb up your arm,” Retail explained and then she began climbing down while helping out everyone in need.

Whenever a kid climbed up near the door, they grabbed Hilda’s arm and began climbing, and as for kids who lost an arm, Retail would bring them up and tell them to wait. Frida decided to get out of there so she did what most of the kids did: grabbed Hilda’s arm and climbed out of the bus so she could be away from the madness at hand.

Retail eventually found herself at the front end of the bus with a bunch of kids, along with the driver trying to get up off of the now cracked glass floor they’re on while others have begun climbing. David, on the other hand, just broke. He didn’t move much and when he did, he was horrified.

Once Retail managed to get everyone off of the glass and climbing, thankfully there weren't any kids without legs or arms. David was the last one left at the bottom. 

“David, come on!” Retail yelled out, reaching a hand for David to grab.

David didn’t respond at all, so Retail decided the best option was to simply grab the boy and rappel up the bus by stretching out her right hand to grab the side of the backseat. Thankfully, David wasn’t much of a problem to deal with, since Retail grabbed his left arm and began rappelling up the bus with him until she reached the back end, where Hilda was still holding onto the bus from falling.

“I’m going to get the limbless ones out first, and then I’ll come back for David, alright?” Retail told Hilda and she replied with a simple nod while trying to ignore how painful holding what seemed to be like a building in her hands.

Retail began her journey with the limbless ones by taking one up one at a time. Extending her arm out to grab the edge of the cliff and rappel up, repeating the process one at a time until all of them are safe. During all of this, David just laid down in one of the seats while having a panic attack. “David, listen to me! You have to climb up or we’ll both die here! I know for a fact the tree is going to break, so come on!”

David didn’t reply at all to any of Hilda’s pleas to climb as Retail kept going back and forth with each kid until they were all out of the bus. The only people in the bus now were Retail, Hilda, and David. 

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s David! He’s broken!” Hilda yelled and Retail climbed into the seat that David laid in. Without hesitation, Retail decided to treat David like one of the limbless by grabbing him and preparing to rappel out of the bus. However, just as Retail was preparing to extend her arm, the tree that Hilda held onto for so long finally broke and the bus was now going down the cliff.

The drop was forty feet down and with the rocks at the bottom, it was not going to be a soft landing at all. So, when Hilda’s left arm returned to her despite having splinters and burn marks in her sweater, she reached David, hugged him, and she then grew in size along with Retail joining her as well. Everyone prepared for the bus to hit the ground and as soon as it did, all hell broke loose.

The bus tumbled across the big and small rocks while Hilda, Retail, and the now protected David were hitting everything on the bus from what seemed to be metal from everywhere, bits of broken glass going into the girls' clothes, and the bus itself was being contorted beyond repair until it eventually stopped after two minutes of tumbling.

Once the dust was settled, along with the bus being upside down, the only thing out of place was a ball-like figure that was both Retail and Hilda protecting David due to their increased body mass until the two shrunk back to their normal size. The three eventually separated and just laid down in the bus.

Hilda then slowly got up to see that the only person with any sort of injury was both Retail and herself as they both had cuts in their clothes, which also lead to minor cuts in their arms, legs, and a bit of their backs. Especially Retail, since her clothes were already ripped.

Hilda saw a light of yellow coming from the busted backdoor of the bus and she slowly walked to it, climbing out to see that they in fact did go down a forty foot drop and survive it. Everything around her was just rocks, a few water ponds from rain, and the bus itself, which was a disaster.

To Hilda’s surprise, a hand grabbed her shoulder and she turned around to see Retail carrying a passed out David. 

“We did it.”

“Yeah…” Hilda answered, and she then sat down on a flat part of the land a few feet away from the bus. 

“I was right about us being unbreakable afterall.”

“Not exactly,” Retail countered and then Hilda saw Retail’s cut up right hand. 

“The window?” Hilda asked and Retail nodded. 

“Is David alright?”

“Yeah. He’s fine,” Retail answered and she sat down next to Hilda, putting David beside them where his back was pressed against a tall flat rock.

“So what do we do now?” Hilda asked, resting her head on Retail’s shoulder and then Retail responded by placing her arm over Hilda to comfort her. 

“We wait.”


	7. Truth

Chapter 7: Truth

As time went forward, the three survivors just rested after such a disaster, taking in the fresh air and the sunlight as well. 

“I noticed you did a bit of size shifting. Well done,” Retail mentioned. 

“Thank you,” Hilda answered and then David managed to wake up in a panic. David yelled and panicked so much so the point where the only thing audible in this rocky area was David’s screams. Hilda did get up right away and hugged David, stopping his frantic movements.

Eventually, the boy did manage to get in control of himself and began to have a series of panicked breaths before calming down and getting on his knees along with Hilda. The two continued to hug even after the panic calmed completely and soon after, the two went back to their spots of rest. 

“I thought I was done for,” said David.

“If you weren’t panicking and climbed up Hilda’s arm, we wouldn’t be here…” Retail was interrupted by Hilda, telling her to hush to avoid more panic. Even if David did cause the three to go down, they were still alive, so it didn’t matter.

“Hilda,” David began and the two Hilda’s immediately drew their attention to David at the same time. “Thank you,” he finished.

Retail got up and decided the best option was to extend her arm all the way up to the top of the cliff while also offering a hand to either Hilda or David. 

“Come on. We’re rested and we’ll need some help, so let’s go.”

In response, Hilda got up and extended her arm the same way Retail did along with offering a hand to David. Then David accepted both offers and everyone ascended, scaling the cliff walls to get to the top.

Eventually, everyone reached the top of the cliff. 40 feet above what was once a moving bus and the girls noticed that there tons of kids standing near the cliff waiting for an answer regarding the three survivors. 

The girls used the arms that held David to lift him up so the kids could pull him up to the ground while the girls lifted themselves up to the ground when David was no longer in their hands. Everyone was on the ground, safe and sound.

Some of the kids yelled out the names of the survivors and hugged them while others stood at awe at the fact that there were two Hildas standing together. A few started to talk amongst themselves about why an older, more rugged, and slightly pink haired Hilda was there. Even the bus driver had no clue what to think. Since some of the kids lost one of their legs from “The Anomaly,” they did have someone carry them with their arm around another kid’s shoulder.

Everyone waited for what seemed to be an hour before what people saw to be Raven Leader running in their direction. 

“What happened?! I heard some crashes from the distance, but...what….what happened?”

Almost every one of the kids and the driver ran up to Raven Leader to explain what happened to her, but everyone was inaudible to her due to everyone overlapping each other. Raven Leader then took notice of four people who were standing together: Hilda, Retail, David, and Frida.

Raven Leader didn’t know what to think about two Hildas standing side by side, and she eventually told everyone to stay quiet, slowly walking up to the two blue haired saviors. “What happened?” she asked both Hilda and Retail.

“The dirt underneath near the cliff broke. The bus was going to fall off a cliff and kill everyone, so we stopped it,” Retail explained. When Raven Leader asked how, the two showed her the abilities the two possessed by simply stretching their arms and moving them like the waves of the ocean and her mind was blown.

Raven Leader did notice Hilda’s left hand being covered with splinters and her sweater having burn marks from how fast her arm dragged across the tree when returning, so she immediately grabbed it and looked at it for several moments.

“You need help. Come on, everyone. Let’s get help!” Raven Leader yelled out to everyone and they all began following her. 

“This doesn’t hurt?” Raven Leader asked. 

“Part of it does,” Hilda answered and she looked at her hand. The splinters weren’t deep into her skin at all. They just needed to be pulled out with a pair of tweezers and all would be well for Hilda. Until then, she would have to learn to live with it until she would get help.

Everyone walked through the forest together, talking about the crash and other events as they saw the beauty of the Huldrawood in the daytime. Frida thanked the two for saving her, David, and everyone which the two responded with the usual “you’re welcome” replies, as the crew kept walking and eventually, they reached what was supposed to be a campsite.

The campsite was the usual Sparrow Scouts camp grounds with white tents and wooden tables with built in seats like a school’s cafeteria table. The area even had a few cars there too. The place did have a few teachers from Ahlberg, including Ms. Hallgrim who was horrified to learn about the bus crash, but was thankful that everyone was alive and mostly well.

The day went out with the kids either resting in tents, eating lunch, or just talking amongst themselves like usual while Raven Leader tended to help out both Hilda and Retail with splinter and glass injuries since medkits were always the number one thing to bring for Sparrow Scouts in case of anything like this happening.

Raven Leader spent what seemed to be like the entire day in one of the tents picking out the splinters in Hilda’s left hand with a pair of tweezers. Once she was done with that, she learned that both Retail and Hilda suffered glass cuts with small pieces stuck in their arms and backs... which meant more of the same deal with the splinters. During all of this, the three talked about why Retail was there, along with other short stories among the two and the fact that Retail knew the crash would happen.

As Raven Leader tended to Retail’s back and arms, she noticed a couple of circular scars among the glass cuts. 

“What happened here?” 

“What?” Retail asked. 

“You have... like, scars on your back,” Raven Leader answered. 

“Oh, that. I fell on some sharp metal stuff once. It sucked.”

“At least you’re alive,” Raven Leader replied.

Raven Leader picked out the glass pieces and placed them in a small cup, used peroxide to clean out potential infections, cleaned out the peroxide residue with a small rag along with bits of blood from the cuts, and used every single bit of band-aids she had in the kit for the two. When Raven Leader was done, the night had begun to take its fold on the world.

“Now keep those on for a few days. I don’t think you’ll be able to take any showers for a while, but once they’re healed, you won’t have to worry,” Raven Leader suggested, and the two girls nodded their head. 

“So, you showed up because of what happened a week ago? I just need to be clear on that,” Raven Leader asked.

“Yeah. I did. I walked through what seemed like an endless forest for a long time. Then I stumbled upon her… or my old house, only to see that every Elf there was either gone or mutilated.”

“Oh, god. Well at least you two found each other, and seem to care for each other, despite being the same person,” Raven Leader said.

The two girls looked at each other and then looked back at Raven Leader with a slight nod to their heads. “Yeah. I’d say we’ve grown….close. I think,” Hilda replied.

“Well is there any way to get…”Retail” home?” The two girls both looked at each other again with that question in their minds without much of an answer. 

“We...don’t know,” Hilda answered. “If there is a way, I hope you’ll be able to find it.”

“Thanks,” Retail said. 

“Hey, I know that the trip seems to still be going on, but I’d personally recommend going back home with rest. Especially after what you did to save everyone. If you want to stay, alright then. I’m just giving my advice,” Raven Leader suggested. 

“How will we get home?” Retail asked.

“I’ll see if I can travel on my own, find a payphone, and call your...or Hilda’s mother to pick you both up. Though, I could drive you home myself,” Raven Leader suggested as well, and the two agreed. After the crash, the two were tired and would rather be at home instead of doing a Sparrow Scouts camp trip. The three went out of the tent and headed towards Raven Leader’s white car. Everyone got in. Raven Leader started up the engine, and before she could leave, one of the Ahlberg teachers showed up to ask why Raven Leader was leaving. After she explained, the teacher understood and ended up letting others know so eventually, the car got on the dirt road and went on their way to Hilda’s apartment home.

The Huldrawood was the polar opposite of what it was during the day. Now, it’s cold, dark, and foreboding to where it became creepy to be in. The crew did find their way out of the Huldawood and got into the city streets, driving through the transformed city in the night.

After a long trip on the road, the crew made it to Hilda’s apartment home and they knocked on the door for Johanna to answer. Once the third loud knock was sent, the outside door to the apartment was opened to show Johanna. 

“Hey...wait. Did something happen?”

Everyone went inside the apartment and Raven Leader explained everything to Johanna. She called the two girls heroes for saving the kids like that with their abilities, along with saving David by going down with the bus and protecting him with their own bodies. Johanna didn’t know what to think at first, but she did grow to be proud of the girls and happy that they were alive as well.

Once the talk was over, Raven Leader said her goodbyes and left the apartment as Hilda, Retail, and Johanna all sat down on the couch together. Nobody had any idea what to say, so they just sat there for what seemed to be a full minute before Johanna decided to hug both girls out of nowhere. 

“You knew this would happen?”

Retail answered with a “yes” to Johanna, and at first, she didn’t know to think again, but it resulted in a hug just for her. 

“Thank you. I would’ve kept you both home, but after knowing that it saved everyone….I’m glad you never told me.”

“I got an idea,” Johanna added. “How about you can stay with us as long as you need until we find you a way home?”

“That’d be great! I don’t know how, but that’d be great,” Retail accepted the offer and the two separated. Hilda jumped in to hug Retail. The two comforted each other for a bit, sharing their peace together until the two separated. 

“Where’s Alfur?” Hilda asked.

“He’s asleep in my bed. I did wonder why he was acting strange earlier, but now I know why. That and the whole colony thing,” Johanna answered. 

“Johanna,” Retail began, and then Johanna wondered what Retail had in mind. “Thank you so much.”

Johanna welcomed Retail, and the mother then noticed all the cut marks in both Hilda and Retail’s sweaters. 

“Hey...I could fix this with sewing,” she mentioned.

“Really?” Retail asked and she then decided to take off her sweater which revealed a white long sleeved shirt that also had cuts and dry blood on it from the cut outlines. 

“Oh...maybe we could get you a new shirt?”

“No, Johanna. I need to explain something to you regarding...shifting. Ok...when I was eaten by a Barghest and then I got what I became, my clothes were affected by it as well. Same with Hilda here. My clothes were in tune with my body and I was able to stretch without a hitch. If I put new clothes on, they would rip whenever I extend.”

“Oh. Well, in that case, I could try to go back to that clothing parlor I went to and see if they could make custom clothes just for you two. That way, you can still be stretchy and don’t have to worry about an embarrassing moment happening,” Johanna suggested and both of the girl’s eyes widened until they realized that size shifting would counter this. 

“What about when we’re able to shrink down to the size of an elf?” Retail mentioned, and then Hilda got up from the couch randomly. 

“What are you doing?” Retail asked Hilda.

“I’m going to test this theory on my PJs,” Hilda answered, and she then walked off into her bedroom. Soon after, she arrived back in a set of red and green PJs with the cut up sweater in her hand.

“Here, Mum,” Hilda said, handing Johanna the sweater.

Right away, Hilda began focusing on size shifting down to Elven size. She did manage to size shift to save David, but that was out of impulse. What if she would have to spend more time in training? Then it happened. Hilda began shrinking down to elf size and to her surprise, her clothes shrunk with her, and everyone was amazed. Especially Retail. 

“Wait, what?!”

“I guess it works on me. I was affected by “The Anomaly” after all, so maybe whatever I wear goes with me,” Hilda suggested, and then Retail got off the couch in disbelief. 

“Every time I tried this, it never worked! You don’t mind if I get into PJs just to test this?”

“Go ahead. I got a pair in the room,” Hilda said in her tiny form, and so Retail ran off into Hilda’s room. Soon after, she walked out in a set of black and blue PJs and then immediately began shrinking down only to realize that her clothes stayed the same size and buried her when she was the same size as Hilda. 

“Dammit. Hey, can you two leave the room for a moment?”

Of course after Hilda got back to her normal size, her and Johanna entered Hilda’s bedroom so Retail could find herself and get back into the clothes she shrunk down in. 

“Alright. Come back in. I’m dressed.”

The two went back into the living room and saw Retail like how she was before she shrunk down, wearing Hilda’s pajamas. 

“I guess being eaten by a Barghest doesn’t grant me what you have. Great.”

“Huh. I could get new clothes for stretching for you, but I don’t know about this size shifting stuff,” Johanna said. 

“Is there anything else you could do that might be a way of helping out with this?” Hilda asked, and then Retail grabbed her hair and began pulling it. Instead of it being like the usual where it yanks you, Retail’s hair began expanding longer than the average woman’s hair length which surprised both Hilda and Johanna. 

“That’s about it,” Retail said and her hair began retracting back to normal.

“Since Johanna can sew stuff, if you want to cut off part of my hair and sew it into my clothes as a method of seeing if my clothes would shrink with me, then go ahead,” Retail mockingly said, and then both Hilda and Johanna look at each other with smirky smiles. “Wait, you’re seriously considering this?”

“Yep,” both Hilda and Johanna said at once. 

“I guess I’ll work with the sweaters to fix them and tomorrow, I’ll get to work at the parlor along with cutting a piece of your hair. Actually, let’s do that now,” Johanna said, and she then went into her bedroom, leaving the girls alone for a moment. “Are you seriously considering this? This is stupid to do.”

“It’s worth a try. Anything is possible nowadays,” Hilda replied, and then Retail sighed. Johanna walked back into the room with a small box of sewing equipment that had a pair of scissors in them. Johanna took out the scissors and walked up to Retail, grabbing a small patch of her hair. 

“You want to do this?”

“....Go at it. I can just grow it back anyway,” Retail answered, and then Johanna cut off a small patch of blue and pink hair, placing it on the coffee table afterward in the living room. 

“Now, you two go and get some sleep. I’ll be fixing up your sweaters in the meantime.”

Hilda and Retail agreed to Johanna’s suggestion, and they went off into the bedroom, seeing a yellow lit up room with everything Hilda knew from her life. The two noticed Twig sleeping in Hilda’s bed. 

“I guess you want me to sleep on the floor or something? I can’t shrink down right now, obviously.”

“Nonsense. Come on. Jump in,” Hilda said as she got into the bed beside the window. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah. Come on in,” Hilda mentioned, and Retail accepted the offer after she turned off the lights which made the room dark like it usually is in the dead of night. Retail got into the bed with Hilda and the two just looked up at the ceiling. Then out of nowhere, Hilda cuddled up next to Retail and hugged her similar to what she did with Alfur. 

“What’s all this for?”

“A thanks. For everything,” Hilda said as she snuggled up her head next to Retail’s shoulder and Retail gained a subtle smile. 

“You’re welcome.”

In response, Retail decided to give Hilda a hug and after some time, the two fell asleep together. They finally got the rest they earned.

In the morning, Retail woke up to the yellow hues of the day and noticed that Hilda was still hugging her, even in her sleep. It felt like Retail could just rest here for the rest of her life and say everything ends here, but reality would like to beg the difference. She decided to wake Hilda up by softly shaking her. 

“Hey,” Hilda lazily spoke.

“Morning,” said Retail. 

“Can we just lay here and call it a day?” Hilda asked, and then Retail laughed. 

“What’s so funny?”

“With my worker mentality, sleeping during the morning would be a death sentence for me. So let’s get up,” Retail answered, and she lazily got up from the bed. 

“Want to go see what Johanna and Alfur are up to?”

“Sure,” Hilda said, and then climbed out of the bed, joining Retail as they both walked away from the bed towards the door until Twig woke up. “Hey, boy. Come on,” Hilda suggested and then Twig joined the two. 

The three walked into the living room and they saw both Johanna and Alfur looking through what seemed to be six sets of clothes. Multicolored shirts, black pants, white socks, everything anyone needs for clothing was there. 

“What’s all of this?” Retail asked, and the two sitting at the couch noticed the girls and Twig. 

“You two woke up late. I was expecting you to wake up much earlier, but anyway, Alfur and I went out to the same clothing parlor. We got some clothes and...had them sew tiny bits of your hair into everything,” Johanna answered.

“...So you were serious about that. I shouldn’t be surprised,” Retail replied. 

“If you want to try them on and see if it works with your abilities, then go ahead. Grab one set, go into the bathroom, and change.”

“Alright. Let’s see this not work,” Retail finished and grabbed the closest set in the pile. She didn’t even see any strands of her hair in the clothes at all which was hard to believe for her, but it didn’t matter. She went off into the bathroom.

“Now, Hilda. I..uh...want to talk to you about something. Or Alfur and I want to talk to you about something,” Johanna began and Hilda’s curiosity peaked. 

“What is it?”

Alfur then got up from the couch. 

“Hilda…” Alfur began, “...ah, God, I can’t believe I’m finally going to say this,” he added to himself. 

“What? What is it?!”

“Ok, Alfur. Just calm down and I’ll explain everything,” Johanna told Alfur, and he then sat back down on the couch. 

“I might as well be as blunt as possible.”

Johanna then took a deep breath and prepared herself for the outcome. 

“Alfur is your father,” Johanna told, and then Hilda’s mind went blank. 

“What?”

“Alright. I think the best way to sum everything up is that during one of Alfur’s trips while I was carrying you, he managed to get himself into trouble. So much so that he was cursed to be...what he is now. At least that’s what he told me,” Johanna explained.

“...Why didn’t you tell me this sooner? How did you two stay together during that?” Hilda asked. “We couldn’t for the longest time. I had to live my life in the colony for I think… about eleven years, until we finally had a reason to go into your house. Raiding it and such. Then you and I met and… everything changed. So I packed my bags, made some excuses to get a reason to go, and there I was. Off to write reports on human life in the city. As long as I was with you and I got to watch you grow up, I was happy. But I was never able to tell you what I really was. Until I became...tall,” Alfur explained in the best way he knew how.

Hilda had no idea what to think of all of this. Alfur being her biological father. It seemed like a dream, but it wasn’t. 

“So you’re the reason I have blue hair?”

“Actually, no. My hair was brown so I honestly have no clue how you got it. Genetic mutation, maybe?”

After knowing the truth about Alfur, Hilda had no idea what to do other than just run up to him and hug him tightly until the thought of the colony came to mind. 

“What about the colony?”

Alfur’s face then turned depressed as soon as Hilda mentioned the colony back at her home away from home. 

“This is the last time I’ll bring this up. For now, I hope. They’re gone. If Retail told the truth, which I don’t doubt her, then there is no reason for me to keep writing anymore.”

Hilda took Alfur’s response like a punch in the gut, but with him being forced into the life that he was once cursed to be, maybe them being gone is a sort of twisted sense of freedom for the poor father. So the two stood in silence, hugging each other while Hilda planted the truth in her head.

Eventually, the hug stopped when Retail finally decided to enter the living room slowly. 

“Before you ask, Hilda: Yes. I knew this. I was in the same boat as you, though my Alfur wasn’t tall.”

“Well..come on in for the hug,” Alfur mentioned, offering for Retail to join the hug and so she did. The three embraced each other like a happy family and then Johanna joined in as well. Everyone together in harmony.

Everyone did separate after some time and then the question of Retail’s clothes came to mind. 

“Did they work?” Johanna asked.

“Surprisingly….yes,” Retail answered to everyone’s amazement. 

“First idea equaled success. Well I’m happy I don’t have to waste time taking out the strands. Show us,” Johanna said and Retail did what she asked. 

Retail shrunk down, but instead of her clothes being the same size like always, they shrunk down with her as well. 

“Problem solved?” Retail asked.

“Problem solved,” everyone else said at once. Retail then grew back to her normal size. It seemed like everything would turn out alright for everyone. Retail, Hilda, Alfur, Johanna, and Twig. Everyone was together, the truth was out, and nobody was harmed from it. It was all peaceful bliss.

The crew hung out together for the rest of the day. Retail placed her set of clothes near Hilda’s closet in her room, everyone had a meal together and talked about Alfur’s previous adventures before he was turned into an elf, and everybody got along without a hitch. They spent hours upon hours talking about life, what Retail’s job at 7/11 is like, and explaining the crash to Alfur as well. Johanna even mentioned how she fixed the sweaters and gave them back to Retail and Hilda. Of course, they put them on right away.

The sweaters had black stitches in them and even the white patches in Retail’s sweater were replaced with the correctly colored cloth sewed in as well. Retail’s sweater looked like it was good as new, similar to how when she got it at the age of 15.

Nightfall did come along and everybody was ready to go to sleep after bringing a TV show together for a while. Alfur and Johanna decided to go to sleep together while Retail, Hilda, and Twig all went into Hilda’s bedroom. Twig jumped into the bed while the two took in their surroundings after being out of the room for so long along with turning on the ceiling light.

While Hilda prepared herself for sleep by getting the bed ready, Retail stood in place with a looming look of growing fear in her face. 

“Hey,” Retail began and Hilda turned around. 

“What’s up?”

Retail then sighed. 

“Nevermind,” she said. 

“What’s wrong? You look scared for some reason,” Hilda asked and her suspicions started to grow on her. 

“Alright. You remember how I showed up? With cut marks on my clothes along with some tears?”

“Yeah…” Hilda said.

“With Alfur being honest earlier, I...I feel like I should be honest too.”

“Remember when I told you that I was taken here while I was at work? I lied," Retail told, and then Hilda became more concerned. 

“What do you mean?”

“I am lucky to be alive right now and if it wasn’t for “The Anomaly,” I’d be dead right now because of a psychopath. A psychopath named Rilda.”

“Ok, ok. Slow down. Start at the beginning and work your way up,” Hilda confusingly said.

“Where do I begin with this other than the beginning? It’s a mess, but I’ll try to explain,” Retail mentioned and both girls sat down on the bed together. 

“Ok. I was working at the 7/11 like I always did, and then this red haired person, who looked just like me, mind you, showed up out of nowhere and began to fuck up everything. It started off subtle, but then it grew to madness with the entire city on fire. I tried to stop her, but then I realized that she looked like she had the powers of a Marra! She could fly and travel across dimensions.”

“Wait, what? How?” Hilda asked. 

“That’s the worst part. When I tried to stop her while she was destroying a hardware store, she obviously knew me, so…” Retail couldn’t finish her sentence and she started to break down... which is something new for Hilda. Yes, she did panic a bit after the phone call from Raven Leader, but this was something else. 

Hilda hugged Retail to bring a short end to the woman’s now growing husk of suffering and she was able to calm herself slightly. 

“I fought her with every last ounce of my life until I suddenly ended up here.”

The two stayed in their hug for a long time. Even Twig joined in with the two and Retail was soon able to be back to normal. 

“Why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because I know she’ll come here and hurt you. Johanna, Alfur, everyone. So to tell you the truth, I can’t go home because...I have no home to go to.”

“Oh...well… let’s not worry about that right now. We got each other, everyone is alright. Just relax for now,” Hilda suggested, and then Retail started shaking her head.

“I can’t. Right now, I just hope you’re not mad at me.”

“No, I’m not. I’m glad you finally told me the truth and after you helped me and saved my friends, you keeping this hidden is nothing to me,” Hilda retorted and tightened her hug with Retail. 

“Thanks.”

“You don’t have to say any more about this. Let’s just get some sleep and go into a new day. Whenever this Rilda appears, we’ll deal with her together. You’re not alone,” Hilda finished, and she then began to climb into the bed with the blanket over her. 

“Right,” Retail finished, and she then went over to the door, turning off the ceiling light and then joining her companion in the bed.

With Retail letting the truth out and being noticeably scared, Hilda didn’t hesitate to hug Retail again just so she wouldn’t be scared in the dark and remember whatever was in her mind about Rilda. It was childish, but it did work for Retail. She accepted Hilda’s offer to cuddle with her and her insecurities were slowly fading away as she also began to fall asleep. Like how every day ends, the two fell asleep along with Twig joining them soon afterward.

Life for everyone went in a peaceful bliss despite the disaster that happened which changed the lives of everyone in Trolberg. Power was finally restored for the rest of the city, people began to learn to live with themselves despite their massive changes unless they were unsaveable, and things were starting to turn back to normal.

Ahlberg was reopened eventually and Hilda was able to go back to school, Alfur learned to accept his new life and no longer write reports or letters, Johanna didn’t mind Retail at all and cared for her like how she cared for Hilda, and Retail felt like she was living a life she once lost.

Even with this “Rilda” figure on the girl’s minds, they had each other and the people who cared for them. That’s all that mattered for now to them. They were together and life turned out just fine for everyone.


End file.
